If Georgia’s stay in Germany does end against Portugal in Gelsenkirchen on Wednesday, oh what fun they have had. Episode two of Georgia’s first European Championship was much like their first, an almighty ball: loud, fraught, dogged and occasionally ridiculous, a Royal Rumble of sorts as they and the Czech Republic tried to earn a priceless win in pursuit of the last 16. Georges Mikautadze scored from the penalty spot to register his second goal of the tournament but Patrik Schick, who was forced off with a calf problem, cancelled out his opener. This was a glorious reminder of how we will miss these days of wall-to-wall action, this the final day of three back-to-back matches at this competition. The Czech Republic’s head coach, Ivan Hasek, predicted this would be anything but a wild game. How wrong he was.
The moment of the match in a game of plenty came with 94 minutes and 45 seconds on the clock, 15 seconds of allocated added time to run. The Czechs got carried away and Georgia poured forward on the counter. Suddenly – unbelievably – they were 3 v 1 against the defender Robin Hranac. But the substitute Saba Lobjanidze, with only the goalkeeper Jindrich Stanek to beat, spooned his shot over. The substitutes praying for ecstasy on the touchline collapsed to the floor in disbelief. Six players crashed to the turf at the final whistle seconds later.
When the fourth official raised his LED board to signal at least two minutes of first-half stoppage time, all those present could be forgiven for needing to come up for air. It had been a breathless contest from the moment the teams swapped ends, the Georgia goalkeeper, Giorgi Mamardashvili, revving up the supporters behind his goal before touching his posts and crossbar, presumably out of superstition. The message staring back at him was clear. “Believe,” read the banner draped over the advertising hoardings in the top tier. Three minutes into this game, he made a fine double save, repelling Adam Hlozek’s shot with his left boot and then pawing Schick’s deflected effort clear either side of Ladislav Krejci’s overhead kick being headed away by a panicked Solomon Kvirkvelia. It was a slapstick few seconds and a flavour of things to come.
A frenetic first half ended up lasting more than 50 minutes, during which there were two significant VAR interventions and one Georgia goal despite the Czech Republic’s tally of a dozen shots compared to their opponents’ two. Vladimir Coufal’s long throws caused Georgia problems and it was from one of them that the Czechs had the ball in the net after 23 minutes. Hlozek wheeled away, teammates in tow, but on closer inspection the German video assistant referee, Marco Fritz, spotted the Bayer Leverkusen striker had ushered the ball in with his left forearm with a kind of volleyball motion. Hlozek’s initial shot smacked Mamardashvili in the face, cannoned against his own, and bounced in off his arm. The referee, Daniel Siebert, strode back towards halfway, index finger on his earpiece and confirmed the bad news from a Czech perspective.
When Kvara Kvaratskhelia mapped out a free-kick wide on the right flank with the interval looming, the Czechs presumably thought they were one clearance from the half-time whistle. But moments later grown adults embraced, in tears at the award of a Georgia penalty, after the VAR spied Hranac’s extended right arm. Mikautadze had not even sent Stanek the wrong way from 12 yards at that point.
Hranac tried to move his hand away from the ball but the damage was done. The verdict was that it was in an unnatural position as the ball flew towards Georgia’s captain, Guram Kashia, who killed the ball with a sublime first touch and forced Jindrik Stanek into a smart save. Mikautadze stood hands on hips, took a couple of deep breaths and then sparked bedlam. A beaming Kashia hoisted Mikautadze off the floor and patted him incessantly. Such was the flow of this game, seconds later Kashia was jumping into the arms of Mamardashvili after his goalkeeper made an outstanding right-handed save low down to his right to frustrate Schick.
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Eventually the Czechs found a way past Mamardashvili, Schick the beneficiary of a slice of fortune. With the hour mark on the horizon, Coufal sent a wicked out-swinging corner into the box and the substitute Ondrej Lingr beat Solomon Kvirkvelia to the punch to glance a fine header against a post. The ball clinked off the upright but boomeranged, bouncing in off Schick’s chest. Another substitute, Mojmir Chytil, sent a diving header wide and then Mamardashvili saved from Lingr.