At the Portugal camp, Cristiano Ronaldo poses with young fans! 🤩🇵🇹

Before Euro 2024, Georgia coach Willy Sagnol hype up a “amazing” matchup between Cristiano Ronaldo and his team

After defeating Greece, champions of Euro 2004, in the qualification playoffs, the Crusaders are getting ready for their maiden major tournament appearance in Germany.

With just over three years under his coaching belt, Sagnol has guided Georgia to 16 victories out of 33 games. Entering the 17th edition of the European Championships, his team is considered one of the heavy underdogs.

Georgia, which is 75th in the world according to FIFA, is in Group F with Portugal, the winners of Euro 2016, Turkey, and the Czech Republic. Very few people are forecasting that Georgia will advance from this group.

However, Sagnol is hoping that his Georgian team can take advantage of their Group F underdog status. Sagnol has 58 caps for France’s national team, participated in two European Championships, and made it to the 2006 World Cup final as a player.One of Sagnol’s sons is a major fan of five-time Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldo, so he is especially looking forward to Georgia’s third and final group-stage match against Portugal.

Ronaldo, who is an outstanding 44 for Al-Nassr last season, is still going strong at the age of 39. He is the all-time leading scorer at the European Championships with 14 goals. This summer’s tournament will be his sixth on the continent, and he comes into it in great shape.

“I think one of my sons is the biggest Cristiano Ronaldo fan on earth,” Sagnol told UEFA.com. As a dad, it’s great to know that my son is thrilled about playing Portugal. However, being a European powerhouse, Portugal will make for a formidable opponent in this group.

“Turkey have been putting in outstanding work in the last few years, with new players coming in who are young and very talented,” Sagnol added, evaluating Georgia’s other Group F opponents. As for Czechia, they’ve had strong teams and competed in numerous competitions throughout the years.

And last but not least, our Georgia. Almost the unknown, sneaking into this event completely unannounced. We will give it our all in every match, whether it’s against Portugal, the Czech Republic, or Turkey.It wаs а difficult periоd when I tооk chаrge becаuse we were in the middle оf the CоVID-19 pаndemic, nоt tо mentiоn thаt Geоrgiа hаd just been eliminаted frоm the [Eurо 2020 quаlifying] plаyоffs by Nоrth Mаcedоniа bаck in Nоvember 2020. Sаgnоl believes thаt а lоt hаs chаnged with the Geоrgiаn nаtiоnаl teаm since his аppоintment in 2021.

It was such a huge letdown that we needed to start putting ourselves back together and getting over it emotionally and mentally. As if a surreal dream had come to a close. Some time passed.

The players’ and the audience’s view of football was shaped by us. We had to flip things around a bit to bring it all in line with the high-level specifications. When it comes to this, the players have been outstanding.

They’ve been at it for a couple of years now, and they’ve changed a lot. Even their approach to football has been revolutionized by some of them. Also, those guys deserve this because they’ve had faith in their objective for quite some time.

With a 3-1 victory over Montenegro on Sunday, Georgia gained a positive result in their lone warm-up match before their opening Euro 2024 match against Turkey on June 18.