Touched by a legend: Georgia’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is congratulated by Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo after the final whistle of their Group F match. — AP
GELSENKIRCHEN: When he was just 14, Georgia’s talisman Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was in awe when Portuguese great Cristiano Ronaldo visited his football academy in Tbilisi in 2013.
On Wednesday, he was just as excited when Ronaldo came up to him to give him a pep talk. The Portuguese star may be regretting that now.
Kvaratskhelia turned in a man-of-the-match performance to take his country to the last 16 of Euro 2024 with a historic 2-0 win over Portugal, leaving the misfiring Ronaldo in the shadows.
The 23-year-old Georgian striker scored his team’s opener inside two minutes to stun the former Euro champions and then produced a sensational display of all-action dribbling, before he was withdrawn to a standing ovation with a quarter of an hour to play.
Before the match, he spoke about his dreams of playing against Ronaldo and getting his idol’s shirt. A photo of Ronaldo’s visit to the academy in Tbilisi also circulated on social media showing the Portuguese great surrounded by excited young footballers, among them Kvaratskhelia.
But the Napoli winger showed on Wednesday that he is now on equal terms with one of his footballing idols and revealed he had a special memento from the match.
“I have a jersey of Ronaldo,” he told reporters. “I got it. And we also made it through the next round. This is the best day in the lives of Georgians.
“Everybody is so happy, we just made history. Nobody would believe that we would make it happen and we would defeat Portugal. But I think this is why we’re a strong team.
“When he comes to you before the match and when he says that I wish you success, that is amazing,” Kvaratskhelia said. “I realised that actually I could do it and we could do so many things today because it gave us so much incentive.”
Kvaratskhelia – affectionately dubbed “Kvaradona” by adoring supporters of his club Napoli, with whom he won the Italian title in 2023 – put Georgia’s win above even that success, which saw another historic triumph with an unfancied team.
“This is the best day in my life because it was more difficult to do it with the Georgian team than with the Napoli team,” he said.
“The Scudetto was great but today I’m so happy because you’re playing for your country,” Kvaratskhelia told reporters.
“It was always a dream of mine to play for the national team and we made it through to next round, it’s difficult to describe my emotions.”
Despite the personal accolades, however, Kvaratskhelia insisted the basis for Georgia’s greatest-ever result was a collective effort.
“There was no individual best player,” he said.
“It was teamwork and we proved to anyone that we could really play.”
While Kvaratskhelia was right to hail his teammates, it may well be down to him if Georgia are to spring an even bigger upset against Spain on Sunday. — Agencies
