Soccer-Georgia's French connection helps them into dreamland

FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Euro 2024 - Group F - Georgia v Czech Republic - Hamburg Volksparkstadion, Hamburg, Germany - June 22, 2024 Georgia coach Willy Sagnol reacts REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo

By Felix Light and Andrew Cawthorne

TBILISI/HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - Eighteen years ago, an intelligent 29-year-old French defender called Willy Sagnol helped shackle Cristiano Ronaldo in a World Cup semi-final victory for Les Bleus over Portugal.

On Wednesday evening, Sagnol relived the battle with Ronaldo's Portugal, this time as coach of Georgia in their first major international tournament, and won again.

The Portuguese wizard was frustrated at every turn, kicking a water-bottle when substituted, as the now 47-year-old Sagnol masterminded Georgia's greatest sporting triumph since 1991 independence from the Soviet Union.

"It's still a bit difficult to realise what we have done," said a stunned-looking Sagnol, who took over Georgia at a low ebb in early 2021 when they had failed to qualify for the previous Euros and the Covid pandemic was raging.

"When we go back to our homes and holidays, I think we are going to realise at this time exactly what we have done. Today I don't have a lot of words ... I am so proud of the players. What an image of Georgia they have shown," he added.

Before home and holidays, however, is the small matter of Sunday's last-16 clash with Spain.

The three-times European champions have looked one of the best teams at the tournament and another giant-killing act for Georgia is probably a step too far.

Whatever the result, though, Sagnol and his men are heroes for Georgia's 3.7 million people, tens of thousands of whom have come to Germany in a noisy red-and-white army.

PARTY TIME

Qualification for the Euros in March had already sparked one of the biggest parties in Georgia's history.

But that was more than matched by the delirious scenes in the capital Tbilisi and elsewhere as Georgians celebrated the win over Portugal long into the early hours of Thursday.

Sagnol, who used to play for Bayern Munich, has moulded Georgia with a distinctive playing style perhaps reflecting his own roots as a defender and a recognition that his players do not have the pedigree of most others.

They are the lowest-ranked team at the tournament, 68 places below Portugal in FIFA's table.

Georgia focus first on being very hard to break down, sitting deep and defending en masse. But then they break fast, using the speed of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and aggression of Georges Mikautadze, both of whom scored against Portugal.

In their other games, Georgia were unlucky not to draw with Turkey, coming close to an equaliser before succumbing to a last-gasp goal against the run of play in a 3-1 loss. Against the Czech Republic, Saba Lobjanidze should have won it at the death, blazing over to leave the score at 1-1.

Sagnol's leadership is just the latest French connection.

Many Georgian dissidents fled to France after the 1921 Soviet invasion ended a brief independence.

President Salome Zourabichvili is a French-born descendant of those emigres who initially came back to Georgia as an ambassador for Paris. Striker Mikautadze - whose first name is spelt the French Georges not the Georgian Giorgi - was born in Lyon and plays for Metz.

"Georgian football deserves a place among the giants!," the French embassy in Tbilisi said in a congratulatory message.

(Reporting by Felix Light and Gleb Stolyarov in Tbilisi, Andrew Cawthorne in Hamburg; Editing by Ed Osmond)