Carvajal plays 90 minutes as Spain seal top spot in Group A

Spain defeated Georgia 3-1 in Valladolid on Sunday night, a result that confirms La Roja’s spot as Group A winners and that means they’ll be in the highest-ranked pot for the Euro 2024 group stage draw. Dani Carvajal played the full 90 minutes at the Estadio José Zorrilla, while the other Real Madrid player in the squad, Joselu, didn’t come off the bench.

It was perhaps a trickier win for Spain than most expected it to be, as Robin Le Normand’s early set piece goal was cancelled out by Georgia and Napoli star Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. Neither Le Normand nor Carvajal could catch the forward, as Georgia scored a perfect counter-attacking goal to temporarily stun the home crowd.

It took until the 55th minute for Spain to retake the lead, which they did through Ferran Torres, before a Luka Lochoshvili own goal made it 3-1 and meant the three points were staying in Spain.

From Carvajal’s perspective, this was far from his best performance of the season. Although he had some nice attacking sequences, especially when he was combining with Gavi before the latter’s injury, Carvajal did lose possession time and time again.

But, Spain won and Carvajal achieved his personal objective, which was to avoid being booked. A yellow card would have seen him suspended for the first game of Euro 2024, but he managed to avoid entering the referee’s notebook, even if he did have a few confrontations with the Georgian opposition during the match.