Spain beats Georgia 4-1 to reach Euro 2024 quarterfinals. It next plays host Germany

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — Spain recovered from conceding an early own-goal to beat Georgia 4-1 for a spot in the Euro 2024 quarterfinals, ending one of the tournament's most compelling underdog stories.

Goals from midfielders Rodri and Fabián Ruiz brought Spain back into the game after Robin Le Normand's own-goal in the 18th minute had given Georgia a shock lead. Nico Williams and Dani OImo took the game out of Georgia's reach with two more goals late in the game as heavy rain fell.

After the final whistle, Williams and the 16-year-old Lamine Yamal met up on the field for an impromptu game of rock-paper-scissors, apparently over who got to drink first from a water bottle.

It was a moment that summed up the unpredictability and sense of fun in a Spain team which had previously been prone to retreating into an unthreatening passing game, as in its loss to Morocco at the same stage of the 2022 World Cup.

Facing Georgia was a test of Spain's nerves, Rodri said.

“It was a tough game. We knew it before. Maybe they don’t have the big names, but they made it hard for us," he said, adding that his goal “was key because we were a bit jittery at that point… We have things to improve.”

His own performance won praise from Spain coach Luis de la Fuente, who called Rodri “a walking computer, a perfect computer” in Spain's midfield, in translated comments.

Spain will play host nation Germany in the quarterfinals on Friday in Stuttgart.

“Obviously Germany at home is going to be very strong but we have no fear. We have our own weapons,” Rodri said.

The loss ends Georgia's first ever major tournament campaign, which included a 2-0 upset win over Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal.

Despite the lopsided score on Sunday, Georgia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili had another standout game with nine saves to prevent a rout.

Spain had beaten Georgia 7-1 in qualifying last year, but this game was a close contest until the last 20 minutes and testament to Georgia’s rapid improvement under coach Willy Sagnol.

Playing its fourth game of Euro 2024, Spain had yet to concede a goal all tournament.

That soon changed when Otar Kakabadze surged down the right flank for Georgia and crossed low. Le Normand chested the ball past his own goalkeeper, with the defender apparently distracted by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia arriving behind him to meet the cross.

Spain took its time to get back into the game, but Rodri -- back from a one-game suspension -- leveled the score in the 39th with a low shot from just outside the box.

Georgia remained a threat on the counter, including with an audacious shot from the halfway line by Kvaratskhelia, but Spain midfielder Ruiz made it 2-1 in the 51st when he rose unmarked to meet a cross from Yamal.

Needing a goal, Georgia had to open up its compact defensive formation and conceded twice more as Williams scored in the 75th, sprinting through the Georgian half on the break before shooting over Mamardashvili. Substitute Olmo added a fourth eight minutes later.

Sagnol said his team could have beaten Spain after Le Normand's own-goal but the combination of the equalizer from Rodri and an injury to Otar Kiteishvili just after took the wind out of their sails.

"We thought we could have a chance," Sagnol said. “We did lose a lot in these 20, 30 seconds.”

After the final whistle, Georgia's players gathered in front of their fans for a slow-clap chant reminiscent of another European Championship underdog — Iceland — when it beat England in 2016.

AP Euro 2024: https://apnews.com/hub/euro-2024

Georgia's Otar Kakabadze, right, challenges Spain's Nico Williams during a round of sixteen match between Spain and Georgia at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Georgia's Khvicha Kvaratskhelia celebrates after Spain's Robin Le Normand, left, scored an own goal past Spain's goalkeeper Unai Simon, right, during a round of sixteen match between Spain and Georgia at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Spain's Robin Le Normand, left, scores an own goal during a round of sixteen match between Spain and Georgia at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

Spain's Robin Le Normand competes for the ball with Georgia's Khvicha Kvaratskhelia during a round of sixteen match at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

Georgia's Georges Mikautadze, left, fights for the ball with Spain's Marc Cucurella during a round of sixteen match between Spain and Georgia at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

Georgia's Lasha Dvali wipes his face during a round of sixteen match between Spain and Georgia at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Georgia players acknowledge their fans after a round of sixteen match between Spain and Georgia at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Georgia's Guram Kashia walks off the pitch after a round of sixteen match between Spain and Georgia at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Spain's Rodri celebrates after scoring his side's opening goal during a round of sixteen match against Georgia at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

Spain's Nico Williams celebrates after scoring his side's 3rd goal against Georgia during a round of sixteen match at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Spain's Dani Olmo, right, celebrates after scoring his side's 4th goal against during a round of sixteen match at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Spain's Fabian Ruiz (8) celebrates after scoring during a round of sixteen match between Spain and Georgia at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Spain's Fabian Ruiz, second right, scores his side's second goal during a round of sixteen match between Spain and Georgia at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Spain's Fabian Ruiz celebrates after scoring his sides second goal during a round of sixteen match between Spain and Georgia at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Spain's Dani Olmo celebrates after scoring his side's 4th goal against during a round of sixteen match at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Spain's Nico Williams celebrates after scoring his side's 3rd goal against Georgia during a round of sixteen match at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Government leaders of Poland and Germany on Tuesday held wide bilateral consultations aimed at giving a new impulse to neighborly relations that sagged under Poland’s previous government, and to jointly declare responsibility for Europe’s security in turbulent times.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz traveled with 12 ministers and government members, including Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, for the meeting in Warsaw.

“We bring a very clear message: Germany and Poland are good neighbors, close partners and reliable friends. And we want to create a new dynamic for our cooperation,” Scholz told a joint news conference with Tusk.

He stressed that “close partnership between Germany and Poland is very important to us.”

The two pro-European leaders were tightening ties at a time when support is surging in Europe for euroskeptic far-right parties and days after a first round of parliamentary elections in France brought the far right there closer than ever to government.

Wide bilateral consultations between Germany and Poland were most recently held in November 2018. After that, Poland’s right-wing government that was in power until last year adopted a hostile attitude toward Berlin, accusing Germany of excessive influence on European Union decision-making, and focusing on demanding some $1.3 trillion in reparations for the losses that Nazi German occupation caused Poland during World War II.

Tusk's government, which took office in December, is taking steps to mend the ties. They gained special significance in the face of Russia's war on Ukraine, just across Poland's and the 27-member EU's eastern border, and pressure of irregular migration from the Middle East and Africa, which Poland and the EU say is a part of Russia's and ally Belarus' hybrid war on Europe.

Tusk, a former EU Council head, said that Poland's and the continent's security was his priority and that “no one should have any doubts as to the importance of good cooperation in this area between Poland and Germany.”

Tusk said it was with great satisfaction that he heard Scholz's declaration that Germany is ready to take co-responsibility for the security of Poland's eastern border, through investment into the infrastructure and other security needs there. He criticized European countries for lacking coordination and determination in taking steps for the continent's joint security.

“The security of Germany and Poland is inextricably linked. This means that Poland’s security is also Germany’s security," Scholz said.

"This is what we stand for as neighbors, as NATO allies and as partners in the European Union. Our solidarity and our joint action are our common strength,” he said.

Scholz also pledged to “take measures to support the surviving victims of the German attack and occupation in the years 1939-45” in Poland and to “strengthen remembrance and commemoration of our painful shared history” by commemorating the Polish victims through the establishment of a German-Polish House that is "intended to be a visible sign against forgetting and a warning for the future.”

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AP writer Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, center right, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk review the guard of honor before German-Polish inter-governmental consultations in front of Prime Minister Chancellery in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, center left, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, center right, review the guard of honor before German-Polish inter-governmental consultations in front of Prime Minister Chancellery in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, center left, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, cener right, review the guard of honor before German-Polish inter-governmental consultations in front of Prime Minister Chancellery in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, center left, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, center right, review the guard of honor before German-Polish inter-governmental consultations in front of Prime Minister Chancellery in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, left, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk review the guard of honor before German-Polish inter-governmental consultations in front of Prime Minister Chancellery in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, left, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk attend a press conference after German-Polish inter-governmental consultations in front of Prime Minister Chancellery in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, left, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk attend a press conference after German-Polish inter-governmental consultations in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, left, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk attend a press conference after German-Polish inter-governmental consultations in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)