It was a Tuesday of emotions in the final play-off for Euro 2024
.
The tournament to be held in Germany defined its last
three qualifiers
:
Ukraine
-with the connotation of having done so far from their lands due to the invasion of Russia-,
Georgia
-which will play in a final phase for the first time- and
Poland
-which arrived by fifth time - they beat
Iceland
,
Greece
and
Wales
, respectively.
Ukraine was heroic
.
Not only because they had to travel to Poland to play at home in this single-game tie for qualification against Iceland, but also because they had to overcome the result.
In the final stretch, after scoring a goal against,
Mikhalo Mudryk
- Enzo Fernández's teammate at Chelsea in England - did not think twice, he launched an unexpected right hand, crossed, in front of several legs that were in the way. to the goal, but so tight, so subtle, so definitive that it ended in 2-1 and qualification for Euro 2024.
The forward for whom the Blues paid 100 million euros, the emerging Ukrainian star, a scorer for only the second time in the National Team this Tuesday, resolved a mess that began with
Atli Gudmunsson
's 0-1 , which he amended with 1- 1 by
Tsygankov
at the beginning of the second half and who was on the edge until almost the end.
He ended the last seconds locked in his area
.
Ukraine trembled, but recovered.
And he won before extra time.
Mudryk dictated it in the 84th minute to qualify his national team for its fourth consecutive European Championship.
In Germany 2024 it was placed in group E, with
Belgium
,
Slovakia
and
Romania
.
Georgia's first major international tournament
Georgia and its forward
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
- nicknamed 'Kavaradona' in Napoli with which he was Italian Serie A champion - will participate in
their first major international tournament
after beating
Greece
this Tuesday in a penalty shootout after drawing 0-0 in the playoffs.
Photo: Giorgi ARJEVANIDZE / AFP
Nika Kvekveskiri nailed the decisive penalty to seal a 4-2 victory for the Georgians in the shootout.
Greek captain Tasos Bakasetas' shot was parried by Georgian goalkeeper
Giorgi Mamardashvili
at the start of the shootout and then Giorgos Giakoumakis shot wide.
Kvaratskhelia, the Georgia talisman who plays as a winger for Napoli in Italy's Serie A and is known as “Kvaradona” by his fans in reference to Diego Armando Maradona, watched the outcome from the substitute bench, after being replaced in the second half of extra time.
After qualifying, many fans among the 50,000 at the national stadium in Tbilisi jumped onto the pitch to celebrate, and several climbed the goalposts to sit on the crossbar.
Photo: EFE/EPA/DAVID MDZINARISHVILI
Georgia will be one of the lowest-ranking teams in the group of 24 that will compete in Euro 2024 in Germany.
They will be in Group F along with
Portugal
,
Turkey
and
the Czech Republic
.
This was the eighth time that Georgia had attempted to advance to the Euros as an independent nation since the separation from the Soviet Union and the first time it had succeeded.
Willy Sagnol, Georgia's French coach, spent most of his playing career in Germany with Bayern Munich.
Sagnol was the right back of the French team that lost on penalties to Italy in the 2006 World Cup final.
With the Uruguayan Gustavo Poyet as coach, Greece was left wanting to go to a Euro, 20 years after starring in one of the biggest failures in football history by becoming champions of the tournament held in Portugal.
They haven't gone to the Euro Cup since 2012.
Poland, on penalties with Lewandowski and Szczesny
Until the tenth shot of the penalty shootout, neither
Poland
nor
Robert Lewandowski
felt they were in the final phase of Euro 2024, thanks to Szczesny's final stop and Daniel James' bad shot, without consolation, like the entire team of Wales, eliminated at the last moment, after the 0-0 with which the match played in Cardiff concluded.
Until then no one failed.
Lewandowski, the first pitcher of all, qualified for his fourth European Championship, did not do it.
It will be the fifth in a row for Poland, which has endured the ups and downs and disappointments of recent times and has made it to the play-off final, with the merit of doing so also as a visitor.
The only one of the three that was played this Tuesday.
Before, no one avoided the extension.
Not 0-0.
Szczesny had flown to frustrate the 1-0 for Wales, as did the VAR earlier in a minimal offside position, when Davies finished on the stroke of half-time inside the area.
He didn't get on the scoreboard.
Without goals in the second half, with chances for both, the match headed to extra time.
Poland, placed in group D, will face
France
,
Austria
and
the Netherlands
.