March 27, 2024, is a big day for Georgia. On that day, they beat Greece 4-2 on penalties to qualify for the European Championship for the first time in their history.
After the game, the players danced the traditional Georgian Ryzkinka in the dressing room, led by Kvaratskhelia and Chakvetadze, but the real success was at full-back Gochoreshvili.
At that time, getting a plane ticket to Germany was their ultimate goal.
And now, they have qualified from the group and are about to stand on the stage of the knockout round.
How did this Georgian team, ranked 74th in the FIFA rankings, come to be?
Bypass UEFA Nations League, wild card get
If you look at the results of the European Championship qualifiers, you will find a strange phenomenon. Georgia are only fourth in the group, behind Spain, Scotland and Norway. It stands to reason that 24 teams will be selected from 10 groups, and Georgia will not be able to take the turn of fourth. However, the European Championship qualifiers have a peculiar set of rules for qualifying.
Step1. The top two teams from the 10 groups qualify directly for the main event, with hosts Germany automatically qualifying for the main tournament and the other three spots being determined through the play-offs.
Step2. The teams participating in the play-offs are the top teams in each group in the ABC bracket of the UEFA Nations League, and each bracket is given a qualifying place.
Yes, because UEFA promoted the UEFA Nations League, it gave the top spot in the UEFA Nations League group stage a wild card to the European Cup play-offs.
With such a toss, the chicken rib event of the UEFA Nations League finally hung two taels of meat.
- For strong teams, in case the qualifiers capsize in the gutter, they can also save themselves through the UEFA Nations League.
- For the weak teams, the competition system of ABC files allows them to avoid the involution with the great powers.
In short, the winners of each group in the UEFA Nations League have "one more life" than other teams.
At Euro 2020, North Macedonia qualified for their first European Championship by detouring through the Nations League, when they eliminated Georgia in the play-offs.
In 2024, Georgia is making a comeback. They won five and drew one against Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Gibraltar in the UEFA Nations League group stage and qualified for the play-offs with an impressive record of group topping.
In the first round of the play-offs, their original opponent was supposed to be Turkey, the group leader in Group C Group 1, but because Turkey had already qualified in the qualifiers, the place was postponed to the second place in the group - Luxembourg.
Luxembourg may sound like a weak team, but in fact they are only eight places below Georgia in the international rankings. However, in the absence of K77, Georgia still reached the play-off final thanks to a brace from Karlsruhe striker Zivcivaze.
In the final, Georgia faced Greece, who were significantly stronger on paper, and it was not until the 100th minute that their opponents had their first shot on target. At the end of 120 minutes, the two sides went to penalties. In the end, Mamardashvili saved, Yakumakis missed, and Georgia beat Greece 4-2 on penalties to reach the European Championship with an eighteen bends in the mountains.
After the game, the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi, was lit up with gongs, drums and firecrackers, lighting up the city as if it were day. This is not only the first time in the history of the Georgian team to break into the European Cup, but also the first time they have reached the finals of an intercontinental competition.
It is true that Georgia were lucky to qualify, such as Turkey giving qualification to Luxembourg, for example, they were drawn at home over both legs, but if you take a closer look at Georgian football, you will find:
Behind luck is strength.
The rise of Georgian football
In fact, in the former Soviet Union, Georgian football was a unique force. They were so creative and creative that they were called "the Brazilians of the Soviet Union" by the media at the time. They have produced a number of football talents for the former Soviet Union, with Dynamo Tbilisi winning the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1981.
However, small countries will always face a talent shortage. After Georgia's independence in 1991, the first seven European Championship qualifiers all failed. Before Kvaratskhelia, there were probably only two Georgian stars known to fans. One is AC Milan defender Kaladze, and the other is Schalke 04 defender Kobiashvili. Around 2010, with the retirement of the two bigwigs, the Georgian national team, which was already not good, collapsed.
In 2012, they were ranked 73rd in the world. In 2013, it fell 91 places. In 2014, it fell directly to the 125th place...... It set a new record low after they joined FIFA.
Seeing that if it fell again, it would really be warm up with San Marino, Georgia learned from the pain and started its own football development plan.
First, the Georgian Youth Elite Development Program was launched. With the help of UEFA, Georgia has opened 4 professional football schools covering 13 regions of the country. On top of these four schools, the Rustavi National Football Academy was established. Every year, 60 young talents are selected from children under the age of 16 to train at the National Football Academy. At the end of the training camp, the children can go to the professional youth academy or stay at the National Football School for a full year to train for one to three years, and their studies and accommodation are all free.
The second is to establish a communication channel between football schools and league youth academies, so that good football seedlings will be sent to professional teams, such as the Georgian giants Dynamo Tbilisi. With the support of the state, Georgia's professional clubs have increased their investment in youth training, and in 2013 Dynamo Tbilisi completely renovated their academy.
Thirdly, a sustainable football development system has been established, with new stadiums, sports facilities renovated and a long-term vision for the development of football: both in professional areas such as youth training and professional leagues, and in terms of long-term thinking about building a good image of football and increasing revenues.
In addition to national-level policies, celebrities from all walks of life are not idle. Although both of their football bigwigs have retired, both brothers have successfully entered politics.
After retiring from the army, Karadze served as Georgia's energy minister and second deputy prime minister, and is now the mayor of the capital, Tbilisi. Although he did not become a sports minister, he organized various high-level senior competitions from time to time, and invited Totti, Maldini, Boban, Shevchenko, Rivaldo, and Ronaldo to support the façade.
Kobiashvili was elected president of the Georgian Football Federation in 2015 and a member of the Georgian parliament the following year. After he was elected chairman, he continued to recommend young Georgian players to major European leagues, and also used his Bundesliga connections to bring in a new coach for Georgia - Bayern legend, French star, Sagnol, who has coached France Under-21s and Bordeaux.
After a multi-pronged approach, Georgian football began to take on a new look.
More than ten years of sowing, flowering and fruiting
As it turned out, Georgia's investment in football was not in vain.
From 2015 to 2021, the number of registered football players in Georgia increased from 14,676 to 37,600, which is about 1% of the country's population.
- Georgia hosted the U19 and U21 European Youth Championships in 2017 and 2023 respectively. At that year's Under-21 European Championship, Georgia's three matches became the three most attended matches in the history of the Under-21 European Youth Championship.
As for the youth training that they value the most......
The Dynamo Tbilisi Academy has been dubbed the "La Masia of Georgia", with 11 players selected for the Georgian national team. As mentioned earlier, their academy was refurbished in 2013 when Kaladze brought in Cristiano Ronaldo and Shevchenko to inaugurate the new academy, and a group of young players posed with Ronaldo, including Kvaratskhelia, Chakvetadze, Mamardashvili and Davitashvili.
Perhaps since then, Kvaratskhelia has become a fan of Ronaldo. After becoming famous, he mentioned in interviews many times that his idol was Ronaldo, and he chose No. 7 because of Ronaldo. And in the early hours of this morning, Kvaratskhelia single-handedly turned Portugal's defense upside down, not only leading the team to make history, but also getting a wonderful experience of "scoring goals against idols".
After the game, Kvaratskhelia and Cristiano Ronaldo exchanged jerseys. At that moment, it was not only the dream of a football teenager come true, but also reflected the football road of Georgia in the past ten years.
Maybe it will be difficult for Georgia to continue in the knockout rounds, maybe they will not be able to reach the European Championship in a wild card form next time they are promoted to the B leg of the UEFA Nations League, but for Georgian football, that may not matter.
"I like to drive for six or seven hours to watch the Georgian league, where there is no media noise and no money pollution, just the cheers of the fans," Sagnol said. It's like football in the old days, and I miss it so much. ”
Georgian captain Kashya said, "In our country, football has been integrated into our lives and breathes. ”
Yes, the atmosphere of football has been formed, the football population has begun to take shape, and they have scored a goal, a point and a win in one go to the European Championships, not only qualifying for the round of 16 from the group, but also leading the scorers and saves charts respectively.
Fans said: There is a team like this, what more bicycles do you need......
"With every step forward, we are writing a new history."