After losing to Turkey (2:4), Gia Tsetsadze, head coach of the Georgian U-19 team, stated that the third goal turned out decisive.

“For the first ten minutes we were great. When I saw that, I thought that maybe my players could do the same for 90 minutes. The most important point was when Turkey scored their third goal. After that my players' heads dropped a little. We had a good chance to win but after the third goal it was a difficult situation. There were some mistakes but I don't want to talk about today's match in that manner. Turkey was very good. They managed to score against Serbia, France and now us. When we played in the elite round we were not favorites to get through. The big teams didn't think we were strong then. A European Championship is a different stage, however, as all the teams are at the same level”.

According to Okan Buruk, head coach of the Turkish team, the previous match was very strange:

“It was a really strange game. At this level both teams shouldn't be giving that many chances to the opposition; there shouldn't have been so many goals. Georgia had to win so we knew what their strategy would be and that they would give away chances at some stage, especially in central defence. We took advantage of that. In the first game we didn't play well against Serbia and had three players suspended; against France we played a little bit better. I said to the players before today that we should end the tournament with a victory and I thanked them afterwards for their efforts”.

In the last match of the group stage the Georgian national team lost to Turkey 2:4 and took the last place with one point.

Lasha Tabagari