Georgia's heroes stun Ronaldo and Portugal to make history 

So it will be with the fairytale of Georgia and Gelsenkirchen. The line-up of heroes will run and run, just as Willy Sagnol’s history makers did for 90 soul-sapping minutes in the steamy surrounds of AufSchalke Arena.

There was Khvicha Kvaratskhelia who admittedly was their hero before all this. But in delivering a deliciously-taken opening goal within 93 seconds, he set them on their way to somewhere new and surely not even dreamed of. There was Georges Mikautadze, the tournament’s top scorer who’d laid on the opener and then held his nerve with a second from the spot to really bring the dream rushing closer now.

There was Giorgi Mamardashvili, the best goalkeeper of the group stages who produced more heroics when they were needed most. How about Giorgi Gvelesiani, a 33-year-old who only made his international debut this year after spending the past seven years playing his club football in Iran, who made a vital goal-saving block in the first half.

And then there was Willy Sagnol, the mastermind behind it all on the sidelines, who brought the game’s 74th-ranked team to a first major tournament and has them hanging around a little longer, a last 16 showdown with Spain next. The subplots spread far from Gelsenkirchen across the land with Georgia far from the only winners. England could be winners, sent in the direction of Slovakia now. The Netherlands could be winners, handed a softer landing against Romania. Then there’s the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo was a total loser. Which means we’re all ultimately winners?

He was the villain, starting a third group game when he didn’t need to but, clearly ravenous for personal records, did anyway. The opportunity Portugal manager Roberto Martinez used to finally remove Ronaldo on 66 minutes was telling. It arrived after Kvaratskhelia, socks rolled to his ankles to hide the fact that the ball was surely attached to him on a string, had dribbled his way around half of Portugal before being fouled. He was the No.7 who delivered on this night, the one his country is right to build around. Ronaldo, 39 years on this earth, hoofed a water bottle on the sidelines as a final flourish to a masterpiece.

He’d delivered a megamix of the greatest hits: cheap giveaways, leathering a free-kick right down the middle having hounded the referee over where it was to be taken from, whingeing at a teammate for taking a goalscoring chance away from him, furious over a non-call in the box and booked for an almighty strop at Swiss official Sandro Schaerer, one goal-bound effort blocked and another moan on the way off. Taylor Swift takes four hours to get through her classics, this was impressive efficiency.

Martinez had called for a full line change — of the supporting cast. The lead character didn’t change, even on a night when this stadium, with its tunnel designed as a replica of a coal mining shaft in tribute to Schalke’s roots, felt as hot as a pit. No, Ronaldo never changes. There he was in the middle with everything and everyone revolving around him, this the first game of Euro 2024 which had the feel of Qatar 2022 with a visible presence of the Ronaldo tourists, CR7 junkies making the pilgrimage to this wholly unglamorous corner of Germany’s industrial heartland not for the sights or sounds but the Siuuuu. So much for that.

The goal which nearly took the roof off the place came from António Silva, an unwitting Georgian hero on a nightmarish personal night, began as he meant to go on by dawdling in possession and finding only Mikautadze. The attacker carried it forward then waited and weighted to perfection, feeding the ball in front of Kvaratskhelia. The maverick met it with his right to control then lashed it past Diogo Costa into the far corner with his left. Sumptuous and the spark for Georgian mayhem.

Something special was suddenly visible through the heat haze but it was still way off in the distance, 88 minutes and a lifetime away. They wouldn’t simply let it come to them. Sagnol’s men are all intensity, all controlled aggression. As Ronaldo was losing his head, they were using theirs. They’d soak then break in a flash, Kvaratskhelia finding side-netting to put the hearts of Georgians on the opposite side of it crossways.

They broke up Portuguese attacks, João’s Felix and Palhinha trying to get something going but struggling. On 35 minutes Gvelesiani interned to brilliantly block Ronaldo. Mamardashvili stopped everything else.

The nerves were only able to ease around the hour mark. Schaerer had originally waved away the penalty appeal of Luka Lochoshvili when he felt contact from the lamentable António Silva. VAR would show that it was incredibly slight but enough. The explosion from the Georgians at the award was only outdone by the roar that greeted Mikautadze dispatching it.

Martinez tried to find some inspiration on his bench consulting with assistant Anthony Barry, like Sagnol a one-time, maybe-still Ireland candidate. Marc Canham and the FAI can’t even be the merest footnote on this night though.

The Georgian defence held out and on the break they may even have had a third. When Schaerer sounded his last whistle the red and black bodies poured on to the field. Some raced to the Georgian corner, a white wall of euphoric elation. Others raced to Mamardashvili in the goalmouth. Kvaratskhelia finally found himself in a grip even he couldn’t get out of.

Heroes everywhere.

Georgia (3-5-2): Mamardashvili 8; Gvelesiani 8 (Kverkvelia 76), Kashia 7, Lochoshvili 6 (Tsitaishvili 63); Kakabadze 7, Chakvetadze 7 (Mekvabishvili 81), Kochorashvili 7, Kiteishvili 6, Dvali 7; Mikautadze 8, Kvaratskhelia 9 (Davitashvili 81).

Goals: Kvaratskhelia (2); Mikautadze (57, P) Booked: Mekvabishvili 

Portugal (3-5-2): Costa 6; Pereira 6, Silva 2 (Semedo 66), Inacio 6; Dalot 6, Neves 5 (Nunes 75), Palhinha 5 (Neves 45, 5), Conceicao 5, Neto 5 (Jota 75); Ronaldo 2 (Ramos 66), Joao Felix 4.

Booked: Ronaldo, Neto, Neves 

Referee: Sandro Schaerer (SUI) 8