Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

FOOTBALL

Spain come from behind to thrash Georgia and reach Euro 2024 quarter-finals

Rodri, Fabian Ruiz, Nico Williams and Dani Olmo all scored as Spain came from behind to beat surprise packages Georgia 4-1 at Euro 2024 on Sunday and set up a blockbuster quarter-final against hosts Germany.

Published: 1 July 2024 09:03 CEST
Spain come from behind to thrash Georgia and reach Euro 2024 quarter-finals
Spain's midfielder #08 Fabian Ruiz celebrates with teammates after scoring his team's second goal during the UEFA Euro 2024 round of 16 football match between Spain and Georgia at the Cologne Stadium in Cologne on June 30, 2024. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)

Robin Le Normand’s own goal gave Georgia a shock lead in the 18th minute of this last-16 tie to send their noisy supporters wild in Cologne.

It was the first goal Spain had conceded at the competition but they came back to equalise six minutes before the interval courtesy of Manchester City midfielder Rodri.

Ruiz then headed home in the 51st minute and Williams ran through for the third before substitute Olmo made sure of the win as La Roja stay on track to become European champions for the fourth time.

“There are things we need to improve and at some points in the game we were not forceful enough, but in general terms we were superior,” said Rodri.

Spain now take on Germany in the last eight in Stuttgart on Friday in a repeat of the Euro 2008 final, which they won 1-0 to begin their golden era of dominance in international football.

“Germany might be playing at home but we are not afraid. We are here to win, not just to play well or give off a good image,” Rodri added.

Luis de la Fuente’s team are looking to bring back the glory days and they were expected to brush Georgia aside here.

They would have ultimately won by a far greater margin had they converted more of their chances, with 16-year-old winger Lamine Yamal squandering several opportunities in his attempt to become the youngest ever goal-scorer at the Euros.

Georgia are ranked 74th in the world, 66 places below Spain. Willy Sagnol’s team lost twice to Spain in qualifying, going down 7-1 at home and 3-1 away.

Yet they still qualified for a first major tournament and then made it to the knockout stages with a stunning 2-0 win over Portugal. They now go home with their heads held high despite eventually crumbling here.

“I am not saying we are disappointed but we are a bit sad because we lost,” Sagnol said.

“I am sure in some days we will realise exactly what we have done and the happiness will come back very quickly.”

They have a lively attacking partnership between Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Georges Mikautadze that is a danger for any opponent, and Giorgi Mamardashvili has been one of the best goalkeepers at the tournament.

Audacious

Mamardashvili had already saved from Pedri and kept out Dani Carvajal’s glancing header before Georgia went ahead.

The move started with a fine piece of play by Kvaratskhelia on the left, as he picked out a pass for Mikautadze, who then released Otar Kakabadze on the right wing.

Kakabadze’s cross into the box was a horrible one for Le Normand, who had Kvaratskhelia arriving behind him and could not stop the ball rebounding off him and into the net for the eighth own goal of Euro 2024.

Spain were now vulnerable to the counterattack, which is Georgia’s strength, but the men in red continued to dominate the game and kept testing Mamardashvili.

The Valencia shot-stopper made several more interventions in an increasingly wild encounter before the equaliser came, Rodri controlling a Williams pass at the edge of the box and stroking the ball into the corner.

It felt as if that might be that for Georgia, but they remained audacious on the break, with Kvaratskhelia almost scoring from inside his own half at the beginning of the second period, his shot going just wide with goalkeeper Unai Simon out of position.

Spain went ahead shortly after, as Yamal crossed from the right for Ruiz to head in his second goal of the tournament.

Yamal didn’t just miss chances of his own, as he also forced an own goal which was disallowed for offside before Georgia fell apart defensively under increasingly heavy rain.

Ruiz released Williams, who ran from inside his own half, skipped past Giorgi Gvelesiani into the box and fired into the roof of the net to make it 3-1 on 75 minutes.

A delightful control and finish from the edge of the box by Olmo completed the scoring with seven minutes left.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

OPINION AND ANALYSIS

OPINION: Young black stars mirror migrants’ contribution to Spain

Both Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams are the children of first-generation migrants in Spain; their skin colour and standout performances at Euro 2024 say plenty about the country’s changing demographics and reliance on migration to keep afloat. 

Published: 1 July 2024 17:34 CEST
OPINION: Young black stars mirror migrants' contribution to Spain

It’s hard to fathom that the combined age of arguably Spain’s two most decisive players at this year’s Euros is just 37. 

Barça’s Lamine Yamal (16) and Athletic Bilbao’s Nico Williams (21) have given a renewed verticality and freshness to the stale tiki-taka passing style that La Roja stuck to for some 15 years.

They’re also the first black players for La Selección to be considered the national team’s stars. 

Spain hasn’t historically had a multiracial squad, although in the last five years a few black and mixed-race footballers have donned the red jersey: Thiago, Rodrigo, Ansu Fati and Adama TraorĂ©. 

Fati and Traoré, just like Yamal and Williams, are the sons of African migrants who settled in Spain. 

The national team’s current lighting-fast wingers were both born in Spain – Lamine in Llobregat in Catalonia and Nico in Pamplona in Navarre – but their parents had to work hard to make ends meet before their offspring became stars. 

Watching on from the stands during Spain’s 4-1 win over Georgia on Sunday was Williams’ older brother and Athletic team-mate Iñaki, a Ghana international, who looked after him as a child when their father was working in England and their mother was doing multiple jobs in Bilbao.

In Lamine’s case, his mother is from Equatorial Guinea and his father is Moroccan, bringing their son up in the working-class neighbourhood of Rocafonda in the Catalan town of Mataró.

Both players had offers from their parents’ countries to represent their national sides but they chose Spain, their country of birth, mother tongue and upbringing. 

They are Spanish after all, and a representation of how Spain is becoming increasingly multicultural, equally due to global migration trends as to Spanish necessity.

Spain has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe (1.2 children on average) but immigrant families buck that trend, especially African women in Spain, who have on average 3.4 children. 

Currently, one in three children born in Spain have at least one foreign parent, which explains why they’ve been described as a “demographic life jacket” by the Spanish press. 

Eighty percent of them feel Spanish, according to a 2016 study by the Ortega Y Gasset Institute, compared to a measly 6 percent in the US. It’s also more common than ever for children in Spain to grow up with a mix of cultures – 16.9 percent.

Far-right Vox party may prefer that these new Spaniards be “pureblood” JosĂ©s and MarĂ­as but such wishes are not only racist, they’re delusional. 

READ MORE: The real reasons why Spaniards don’t want to have children

Migrants have effectively solved the threat of Spain’s declining population, even though the issue of severe underpopulation in “Empty Spain” is still present (nonetheless, in rural areas migration is having a positive impact). 

The country is set to gain another five million people by 2039, and foreigners account for almost 100 percent of this population growth.

After all, regardless of origins, new blood is needed to fill jobs and pay the pensions of Spain’s increasingly ageing population (set to be the longest living on the planet by 2040). 

Additionally, data from Spain’s Social Security ministry shows that foreign workers have bolstered a solid post-pandemic recovery by the Spanish labour market.

Almost one third of all jobs created in Spain since the end of Covid-19 pandemic have been filled by foreign workers.

Yamal and Williams are a representation of the changing face of Spain – younger, more multiracial and with it, hopefully, more tolerant. 

A 2022 by Spanish youth association FAD found that 75 percent of young Spaniards don’t have racist or xenophobic opinions, whilst 25 percent do. 

The success of the current poster boys of Spanish football – with more than 50 million fans on TikTok combined – can hopefully help reduce those intolerance levels among the future generations even further.

SHOW COMMENTS