Spain’s young footballers Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams are “great for the sport” – but Georgia manager Willy Sagnol’s admiration stops there as he plots their last-16 downfall at Euro 2024.
Yamal, 16, and Williams, 21, have been two of the standout attackers in Germany and will be opponents for Georgia in Cologne on Sunday (20:00 BST kick-off).
“It’s always nice to see young players come in at the top level,” said Sagnol.
“Lamine is 16 years old. I try to remember where I was when I was 16… I was miles away from that! It’s nice and brings something fresh to football.
“I think the problem of the football world is that in the last 15 years, it has been like a ping pong [match] between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi – so this is great for the sport.”
Playing in their first major tournament, Georgia’s team have defied the odds to reach the knockout stages, already surpassing expectations in their home country.
It will be a special occasion for Georgia when they take on three-time European champions Spain, yet Sagnol does not want his side to fear the opposition.
“Spain have shown lots of very, very good things in the group stages – but also Georgia has shown some interesting things,” Sagnol said.
“Spain didn’t concede any goals and it’s clearly the best team from the competition up until now. That’s why it’s going to be a tough match.
“We’ve played four times against them recently and we lost four times, but it’s a different game, and so, many things can happen.”