When you're a small team, you have nothing to lose, says Sagnol of Georgia
Georgia arrived at Euro 2024 with no expectations, manager Willy Sagnol said, having already celebrated what they thought would be their biggest achievement in just qualifying.
Sagnol's men upended Portugal — a team ranked 68 places above them — 2-0 on Wednesday to roar into the knock-out round in their major tournament debut, thanks to goals from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Georges Mikautadze.
There are benefits to being tournament underdogs, Sagnol said.
«When you're the small team, you know you have nothing to lose,» the Frenchman said. «The only thing we said before the competition is whatever happened, we don't want any regrets after the competition, the regret of maybe not having played our football or maybe not having enjoyed the competition as much as we should have done.
»So, you have no weight on your shoulders. It's difficult when you're France, when you're England, when you're Spain, when you're Portugal, because you're under pressure, because people expect you to win.
«The only responsibility we had was to make the Georgian nation proud of their players. And I think we've done it the best way.»
It was a well-deserved win for Georgia who, roared on by their delirious fans, both battled all night and were technically superb.
«When you look at our bench, it's not the most exciting in terms of football quality — but it is in terms of human quality,» Sagnol said. «I'm very, very happy. I thought qualifying was our maximum but football is never written before.»
In the game's dying minutes, Sagnol said
