Georgia v Czech Republic LIVE: Euro 2024 latest score and updates after Khvicha Kvaratskhelia injury scare

Georgia get us underway and they look to start on the front foot, quickly winning a free-kick in the Czech half.

The captains are exchanging pennants in the lead-up to kick-off. Both sets of fans helping to create a decent atmosphere.

Having watched both sides’ opening matches, you do feel that if there was going to be a huge surprise in the groups (other than the Belgium game) then it would happen today.

A reminder that Khvicha Kvaratskhelia suffered an injury scare after a feisty warm-up.

A few challenges going in during an exercise to keep the ball.

It seems like the Napoli man is fine though.

The teams are out of the tunnel and the national anthems are underway in Hamburg.

A reminder that a loss for either of these two sides effectively eliminates them from the competition. A win for either would give them a great chance of making the last 16, though with Georgia facing Portugal in their final game it would certainly be an uphill task.

Last night, Poland became the first team to be eliminated from Euro 2024 after they lost 3-1 to Austria and the Netherlands drew with France.

Georgia come into the game having lost their opening match of the group stages 3-1 to Turkey, in a thrilling encounter in Dortmund.

The minnows had only played one warm-up game, which ended with a 3-1 victory over Montenegro.

The competition’s lowest ranked side had ensured qualification to their first ever major tournament with two play-off wins in March. They strolled to a 2-0 win against Luxembourg in the first round, before squeezing past Greece on penalties after a 0-0 draw.

Czech Republic: L-W-W-W-W

Before their disappointing 2-1 loss to Portugal, the Czech Republic had won five games on the bounce, including a 3-0 win over Moldova in their last qualifying game and wins against Armenia and Norway in March friendlies.

The Czechs played two warm-up games in the lead up to Euro 2024, with one ending in a 7-1 demolition of Malta and the other a much closer 2-1 win over North Macedonia.

This will be the first time that these two sides have ever met, with Georgia having qualified for their first ever major international tournament. The two have never played in friendlies either.

Georgia were unlucky at times in their loss against Turkey, with impressive performances from Giorgi Chakvetadze, Giorgi Kochorashvili and Georges Mikautadze, who scored Georgia’s first ever goal at a major tournament.

Head coach Willy Sangol, who made over 50 appearances for France during his playing career, said that his side were “a bit disappointed” after the loss to Turkey.

“A coach and players don’t always focus on the result, because if you only focus on the result you will always do mistakes.

“We can win sometimes without deserving the win and sometimes you lose but don’t deserve it.”

The Czech Republic also go into the game knowing that they need a win, with their head coach Ivan Hašek saying before the game that “it won’t be that wild of a game”.

“Georgia have players who can attack but they won’t open the defence. We really do want to attack, get set-pieces, and be dangerous.

“We didn’t attack that well in the first game, and that’s why we want to do it on Saturday.”

The Czechs have lost seven of the last 12 group games at the Euros, winning three and drawing two.

This preview is especially pertinent given Mikautadze’s performance in the opener.

There are few real stars around Europe who are truly unknown when it comes time for summer international tournaments summer anymore, at least not in the way used to be the case. 

Modern accessibility to more matches and footage than ever before means some of that surprise element has departed, even if players can still come from nowhere to have a great summer with their national team.

But even from countries with less prestige or history, if they have a genuinely top-tier player, they enter the tournament as known quantities, generally speaking. Georgia, at Euro 2024 in their first competition finalssince independence from the Soviet Union, at first seem a case in point.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was an unheralded signing in many ways when Napoli took him from Dinamo Batumi in his home nation – he was back there having previously been playing in Russia when the invasion of Ukraine began, thus allowing him to suspend his contract with Rubin Kazan. But within a few months, he was known everywhere.

And yet Georgia present a confusion of both the above statements: firstly, they do arrive with a relative unknown quantity in their ranks who can make an impression, and secondly, it may be this other player, not their best player in Kvaratskhelia, who offers their best route to cause an upset in Group F. Introducing, Georges Mikautadze.