Coach Sagnol believes Georgia's growing pains will pay off

DORTMUND, Germany - Honour in defeat is rare but European Championship debutants Georgia will take plenty of heart, admiration and experience from their 3-1 loss to Turkey in their opening Group F encounter on Tuesday.

Georgia were unfortunate not to get something from the game after being denied an equaliser by the width of a post in injury time, only to concede a late third goal in one of the most entertaining matches of the tournament so far.

"I don't want to say we are happy losers today but I think we can be proud of our performance," Georgia coach Willy Sagnol told reporters.

"We have given such a nice image of the Georgian footballer but of course we had a lot of opportunities to score, probably as much as Turkey did. But that's football.

"I'm sure in the future, in the next months and years, Georgia won't lose this kind of game. We are in a learning process, but we want to learn in a good way."

Forward Georges Mikautadze scored his side’s first ever goal at the continental finals, and there were several other eye-catching performers in the driving rain in Dortmund.

Georgia can now look forward to Saturday's meeting with the Czech Republic. With Portugal to come in their final Group F game, they likely need a victory to have a chance of reaching the last 16.

"To get out of the group, of course when you start a Euro you can have this goal, but for us most important is to provide good performances because that's how we are going to get better.

"I think Georgia is still in a very important phase of development and competitions (like the Euros) will help the players, the staff, the federation to be even stronger in the future.

"But I can tell you already, I'm convinced we are going to provide the same kind of performance (against the Czech Republic) and I'm very excited already thinking about Saturday." REUTERS