Foreign press reaction to Portugal’s defeat

This was Portugal’s first defeat at Euro 2024: in the last game of the group stage The national team lost to Georgia with a score of 2:0 in a game that went poorly almost from the very beginning – at 93 seconds Khvicha Kvaratskelia scored the first goal of the match.

The Portuguese team have already qualified for the last 16 of the European Championship (where they will face Slovenia on Monday 1 July) by winning their first two games, but this last match left a bitter taste for Portuguese fans – and not only.

The international press highlighted the “magnificent victory” of the small country of 4 million people, “which will forever remain in the memory of the thousands of fans who watched” the game, he said The keeper.

Already Sky Sport claims eight changes to Roberto Martinez’s team contributed to Portugal’s “disjointed performance”. “The Portuguese team will have to step up when they face Slovenia in Frankfurt on Monday,” he says.

In Spain, the Spanish daily newspaper TO says Portugal’s defeat in Wednesday’s game “has gone down in the history of this tournament and this sport” and that Cristiano Ronaldo, who started the match, became “immersed in his own obsession with the goal and the lack of permissiveness on the part of the referee.” “The remaining time was a mixture of discrediting Portugal in the face of a heavy defeat,” the newspaper writes, and “the coronation of a Georgian team that defended its leadership with honor and panache,” it adds.

Already Mundo Deportivo talks about the Georgian team being “reliable in defense and talented in attack”, while Marca emphasizes that the victory was “one of the biggest comebacks in the history of the European Championship”, with Portugal creating few scoring opportunities, especially in the second half.

In France newspaper L’Equipe says the winning team was “b”brilliant in attacking transitions” and that Portugal, despite this defeat, are “the only team with 100% qualification in the history of the competition”.

Italian Corriere dello Sport speaks of a “deserved” victory for Georgia, which made a “cautious and organized defensive attempt to close all spaces”, despite the fact that the defeat was “painless” for our country.