It was arguably the game of the tournament so far. Georgia’s 3-1 loss to Turkey on Tuesday afternoon in their opening tie of Euro 2024 belied a stellar performance that kept the result in doubt all the way to the last minute of extra time. And, for all the disappointment at the final whistle, Levan Kobiashvili could not have been happier to have been at the Westfalenstadion in rainy North Rhine-Westphalia.
The first player in Georgia’s history to have 100 caps, a former captain of the men’s team, and today the president of the Georgian Football Federation, Kobiashvili’s assessment of the last three decades of his country’s footballing history was succinct: it had, until now, “all been a failure”.
