Euro 2016: Should Spain be Worried about Loss to Georgia?

After Spain lost their last Euro 2016 tune up 1-0 against Georgia on home soil, some fans have doubts about Spain’s chances to bring home a third consecutive European Championship.

Spain had an 11-game unbeaten streak going into their final Euro 2016 tune up with Georgia, a team that they are significantly better than, but that did not stop the Georgian National Team from snapping that streak by beating Spain 1-0 in their own backyard.

Cue the freak out from Spanish fans.

While it’s never good to lose in your home country in front of your own fans, especially against an inferior team right before a major tournament, I do not think this game is the end of the world for Spain. It does, however, rise some concerns about the team.

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Spain controlled an overwhelming amount of the possession in this game, with 76% possession of the ball, and they did manage to get off 17 shots, but only 3 on target. They spent most of the game in their attacking third, but they were never able to put together a play to get the ball in the back of the net.

They were given set piece after set piece by the Georgia defenders, but could never spring lose on a run and put a good head on the ball. Even when Georgia had to sub in their backup keeper when the starter was injured in a collision, they still could not find the back of the net.

(Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images) /

This raises concerns about if they are going to be able to get back on track in the attacking third. Up to now, in both qualifying and friendly tune-ups, they have been scoring, but even one off game can put a team in a slump. If they struggled this much against a team that didn’t even qualify for the Euros, how are they going to fix things in the tournament versus better competition?

Also, the lone goal of the game came in the 40th minute on a Georgia counterattack when Jaba Jigauri passed the ball across the face of the goal past a diving David De Gea to Tornike Okriashvili for an easy tap in. Counterattacks were the only time Georgia was able to get anywhere near Spain’s goal, but they did manage multiple counterattacks throughout the game. While this can be chalked up to Spain pushing up trying to equalize, it showed some weakness across their back line.