{"id":406657,"date":"2024-06-26T23:28:04","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T23:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=406657"},"modified":"2024-06-27T01:06:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T01:06:05","slug":"ronaldos-portugal-stunned-in-shock-euros-upset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=406657","title":{"rendered":"Ronaldo's Portugal stunned in shock Euros upset"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pre-game chat with Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a> inspired Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Georgia to one of the biggest upsets in European Championship<\/a> history, beating Portugal<\/a> 2-0 and advancing to the last 16.<\/p>\n

Georgia's No.7 has admired Ronaldo for years and had spoken before the game of how much he wanted his hero's shirt.<\/p>\n

He got it, along with a goal and a slice of history, on a frustrating night for Ronaldo and Portugal.<\/p>\n

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READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Soft' Maroons hammered by Gus<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore the match there was a meeting and he wished me success and it was so much for me because I would never imagine that he would come to me and say something to me,\u201d Kvaratskhelia said in translated comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realised that I could do and we could do so many things today because it gave me inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Napoli forward Kvaratskhelia, the win even surpasses his club's historic Italian title last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the best day in my life because it was more difficult to do it with the Georgian team than with Napoli,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A banner at the Georgian fans' end of the stadium said \u201cBelieve,\u201d and they did.<\/p>\n

The Georgians needed a win to reach the knockout stage at Euro 2024 and got their opening goal after only 93 seconds. Georges Mikautadze intercepted a poor pass and set up Kvaratskelia to score with a low shot.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ant\u00f3nio Silva gave away the ball before the first goal and gave away a penalty for the second, tripping Luka Lochoshvili inside the penalty area. Mikautadze hit the spot kick low and past Portugal goalkeeper Diogo Costa in the 57th minute.<\/p>\n

Georgia advanced in its debut at a major tournament as one of the best third-place teams. Portugal had already qualified from Group F after winning its first two games.<\/p>\n

The Georgians will next face Spain in Cologne, while Portugal plays Slovenia in Frankfurt. Slovenia is another defence-first team and it upset Portugal 2-0 in a March friendly.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo is still without a goal at Euro 2024. He felt he deserved a penalty in the first half and kicked away a water bottle when he was substituted in the 66th minute.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ronaldo was given a yellow card for his protests after his penalty appeal was turned down. He wanted the decision after his shirt was pulled in the area by Lochoshvili as a cross came in. No foul was given.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

With Portugal already qualified, Ronaldo was one of only three players kept in the lineup from the previous 3-0 win over Turkey, along with Costa and midfielder Jo\u00e3o Palhinha.<\/p>\n

Portugal created little in the second half as Georgia\u2019s defence sat deep, but the 2016 champions had chances in added time. Goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili kept Georgia\u2019s two-goal lead intact with saves from N\u00e9lson Semedo and Diogo Dalot, while Francisco Concei\u00e7\u00e3o narrowly missed the target.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Portugal coach Roberto Martinez criticised \u201cvery inconsistent\u201d video reviews but denied his team had underestimated Georgia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a game where Georgia was playing to be part of history and we didn\u2019t match their intensity," he said.<\/p>\n

At the final whistle, Georgia's players sprinted off the bench to embrace Mamardashvili in a huddle and leapt with joy in front of their raucous fans.<\/p>\n

Turkey beat the Czech Republic 2-1 in the other group match. The Turks also advanced while the Czechs were eliminated.<\/p>\n

Georgia's victory also eliminated Hungary, which finished third in Group A.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A pre-game chat with Cristiano Ronaldo inspired Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Georgia to one of the biggest upsets in European Championship history, beating Portugal 2-0 and […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":406661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406657"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=406657"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":406671,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406657\/revisions\/406671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/406661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=406657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=406657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=406657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}