A far greater challenge lies just up the road for Spain — Friday’s night last eight collision with Germany which looks like the de facto tournament final by any other name — so just as well that they go armed with prodigies on either flank.
The 16-year-old basking in limelight on the right, Lamine Yamal, has rather obscured the significance the talent of Nico Williams on the opposite flank, and in one moment of electricity on Sunday night, he revealed what the hosts are up against.
A precise long ball in his direction and the 21-year-old was sprinting away, leaving Georgia for dead with a ball into the roof the net which wrapped up a challenging night. The customary jig followed. That’s how you dispense with a defiant, indefatigable counter-attacking opponent.
Georgia, the lowest ranked side in the tournament, led for 21 minutes during which their players, some with socks around ankles even then, threatened La Roja again and again with copybook counter-attacking football; three-pass moves, end-to-end, of pinpoint accuracy.
Nico Williams celebrates after scoring Spain’s third goal in their victory against Georgia
Williams showed excellent composure as he managed to find the net in the 75th minute
Fabian Ruiz is delighted after making it 2-1 to Spain in their Euro 2024 clash against Georgia
We will never know for sure how fateful a moment of fractional Georgian imprecision — Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s ball into the path of Luka Lochoshvili was not quite measured as it might have — really was fateful. But a two-goal advantage really was conceivable in those giddy early stages. Oh, what might have been.
It was beyond belief that Spain were behind — Otar Kakabadze drilling a cross from the right which Robin Le Normand diverted into his own net with Kvaratskhelia breathing down his neck — given the inequality which this fixture had brought in qualification.
This was the match that brought Spain full circle, from the stormy night in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, where they arrived 10 months ago in the throes of a qualification campaign which had brought them defeat in Scotland.
Yamal, aged 16 years and 57 days, scored from the bench on his debut in a 7-1 win and Spain have not lost a competitive game since. But Georgia have been fortified beyond imagining by the victory over Portugal which brought them here.
They had a cause, too, felt no less strongly than the brave and dignified Ukraine squad who have now left this stage. The tournament coincides with the fight, back home, against their government’s realignment with Russia. The players have made their feelings felt in their own wish for democracy and freedom.
Briefly, all that seemed to count for little, as the left-wing pair of Williams and Marc Cucurella who were so impressive against Italy, picked up where they had left off in that game.
Williams ran the show early on, with the mercurial Pedri operating between the lines, stretching to thread a shot which goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, of Valencia, was alert to.
With the Georgians packing their box, this was a geometrical puzzle for Spain, toiling with an age-old problem — the absence of a powerful forward — and as the struggle for a solution went on, they reverted to taking aim from distance.
Dani Olmo’s goal made it 4-1 to Spain and added further gloss to the scoreline
Rodri scored in the 39th minute with his strike pulling Spain level against Georgia
Rodri’s goal sparked jubilant scenes amongst the Spain players, including the bench
Georgia players celebrate after taking the lead following on own goal from Robin Le Normand
Spain defender Le Normand inadvertently turned the ball into his own net in the 17th minute
Eventually, it worked – Rodri taking a ball back from Williams and striking it low past Mamardashvili – but not until Spain had been put to a raw physical test which had left them frustrated. For a time, Williams was unable to replicate the early threat he’d posed against the toiling Kakabadze. Rodri visibly urged his team-mates to be calmer and take more time on the ball.
Aware of the danger which Georgia posed in transition, Spain seemed reluctant to press as high as we seem them in this tournament. Every opportunity seemed to be seized by the enterprising Georgians. Spotting Unai Simon off his line, Kvaratskhelia struck an effort from just within his own half and saw the ball fly only narrowly wide of the post. The gasps in that moment. It seemed that the Georgian contingent would expire.
Eventually, technical class told and Spain went ahead, when Yamal’s deftly weighted cross met Fabian Ruiz’s well-timed run. Yamal went close to scoring himself, winning back possession on the edge of the penalty area, stepping between two defenders and shooting wide.
So it was left to Williams wrap it up – sprinting after Ruiz’s long ball, moving beyond Giorgi Gvelesiani as if he wasn’t there and crashing the ball home before the desperate defensive rearguard could complete their retreat. Substitute Dani Olmo scored the fourth with a low strike into the bottom left hand corner. The night’s early struggles seemed a distant memory. It will be an anxious week for Germans, lying in wait.
