Georgi Mamardashvili, the goalkeeper of the Georgian national team who caught the attention with his performance in the Euro 2024 championship, said that his teammate, the forward Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, is better than all the players of the Spanish national team, sparking excitement before the upcoming match between the two teams in the round of 16 next Sunday.
The Georgian goalkeeper spoke confidently before the anticipated match, saying, "My best save in the tournament will be against Spain." He added, "Kvaratskhelia is better than all the players of Spain. I won't say that we will win, but we will make things difficult for Spain even though they are the favorites to win the title." He continued, "We must defend well and then try to exploit counterattacks. Spain's attackers are fast like Lamin Yamaal, he is dangerous and scores and creates goals. Their goalkeeper Unai Simon is the best goalkeeper of the year, it is clear what we need to do but it must be executed with focus." Mamardashvili conceded 7 goals against Spain during the 7-1 loss last year in the European Championship qualifiers in Tbilisi, but the goalkeeper said that his team faced "bad luck" in that match. Georgia is participating in a major tournament for the first time, but they qualified for the round of 16 with a stunning performance after defeating Portugal 2-0 in the final group stage match, where Kvaratskhelia, the star of Napoli, scored a fantastic goal, and they also have Giorgi Mikaoutadze, the tournament's top scorer with three goals. However, Spain was the most convincing among all major teams, being the only team to achieve a perfect record in the group stage. Spain is well aware of the capabilities of Mamardashvili, the Valencia goalkeeper who many consider to be the best goalkeeper in the Euro championship so far, as he saved 21 shots in three matches.