A close contest to decide the last 16

KOLKATA: Giorgi Mamardashvili at the bottom of a players’ pile-up with fans in white and red bouncing behind in the stands in Gelsenkirchen provided a memorable closure to the group stage of the European championship. It was night where Khvicha Kvaratskhelia exchanged shirts with his idol Cristiano Ronaldo but only after besting him and Portugal. A night that underscored tournament football’s ability to surprise.

Georgia are a win against Spain away from doing what Iceland did in 2016, make the quarter-finals at their first time of trying. Two wins and they could be the surprise pack of the competition like Wales in 2016. Or like Morocco in the 2022 World Cup. Even if they don’t do any of that, to have come this far -after finishing fourth among five teams in the qualifiers, they made the finals by beating former champions Greece on penalties – would be enough to show that in continental championships and World Cup finals, defensive discipline and self-belief can sometimes compensate for a lack of pedigree. “This was a game where Georgia was playing to be part of history and we didn’t match their intensity,” said Portugal coach Roberto Martinez.

After beating a team ranked 68 slots above them, Georgia, who at 74 are the lowest ranked team in the edition, won’t baulk at anything. Not after the biggest night in their football history, the biggest in Kvaratskhelia’s career and he was an important player in Napoli winning their first Serie A in 33 years. “We’re going to fight to the last minute as we have done since the beginning of the competition,” said Willy Sagnol, Georgia’s coach.

Only Ronaldo, João Palhinha and Diogo Costa kept their place in the starting line-up after Portugal had qualified as group toppers going into Wednesday’s match. But with goalkeeper Mamardashvili being one of the best among 24 teams, Kvaratskhelia showing why he is called “Kvaradona” and Georges Mikautadze leading the race for the golden boot – how about that for a surprise – Georgia showed they are not to be trifled with.

Neither are Austria. Ralf Rangnick’s men blew away Poland and had an answer for everything Netherlands threw at them and then some. It took an own-goal for heavyweights France to tame them but Austria topped the group showing why they had come to Germany having won 12 of their last 15 matches and losing one. And they did this without David Alaba, their talisman, forward Sasa Kalajdzic and midfielder Xaver Schlager who are injured. A hands-on coach, Rangnick turns 66 on Saturday and could be looking forward to a longer stay in the championship with a team suffused with belief and attacking intent.

Sixteen of 24 teams staying on can mean superfluous matches in the group league but if that didn’t happen, it is because the gap has reduced. Explains why Slovenia’s Ivan Schranz came with a hair’s breadth of scoring in all three games, Belgium were stunned by Slovakia and Ukraine fell to Romania’s long-rangers. That Croatia, Czech Republic and Poland are among those who will have early holidays is also proof of that teams cannot expect to win by merely showing up. All four teams ended on the same points in group E and all 24 got at least a point.

“Football was merciless tonight,” said Luka Modric after Italy equalised with what was virtually the last kick of the match. The 1-1 draw meant Modric had a player of the match award but Croatia, having been similarly hit by Albania, were going home. A number of players from the generation that was runners-up in the 2018 World Cup are on the way out and it will test the strength in depth of a country that has a population of less than four million.

As Croatia grapple with transition, Germany seem to have finished the process after two disappointing World Cup finals and a European Championship. Nothing works as well for a tournament as the home team going deep. Germany are the only team to have won by more than three goals in the group league and along with Spain, have been the most confident teams. Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz have led the march of the young ones long with Spain’s Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, Turkey’s Arda Guler, Mamardashvili and Kvaratskhelia who are 23.

It is a list that did have Jude Bellingham at the start of the tournament and maybe till England’s last group league game but the attacking midfielder couldn’t have chosen a worse time to lose form. But they have a good draw and there is no denying the talent available to coach Gareth Southgate. England have gone from a brisk start to a team that has a problem in midfield to fix and is again feeling the weight of expectations.

You could add Belgium to that list. France’s inability to beat Poland meant even Kylian Mbappe couldn’t mask their problem of lack of goals. It also set up a mouth-watering round-of-16 clash with Belgium. But given how little reputations have counted for, what’s to say there won’t be other evenly matched contests? Beginning with Switzerland, who have looked slick, taking on defending champions Italy who are a work in progress.

After 36 of the 51 matches, after seven own goals, fantastic strikes from range lightning fast counter-attacks and aggressive pressing, Nedim Bajrami scoring in 23 seconds and Kevin Csoboth in the 100th minute, after N’ Golo Kante and not Ronaldo propped up the Saudi Pro League and Xherdan Shaqiri joining the Frenchman in showing that age is a number, after Christian Eriksen returning to this competition and scoring in his first match and Spain showing possession doesn’t matter, we are ready for the knockout rounds. What’s not to like.