Georgia’s Iberia 1999 became the second Georgian football club to qualify in the UEFA Conference League by defeating Northern Ireland’s Larne 2:1 at home.

Iberia 1999, also known as Saburtalo, won the game in the final stage of the Europa League on Tuesday and became the second Georgian club to compete in a UEFA tournament after Tbilisi Dinamo’s own run in 2004–2005.

The UEFA Conference league is the football organisation’s third-tier competition, ranking below the UEFA Europa League and the Champions League.

The first goal was scored by Vakho Bedoshvili, however the opposing team player, James Simpson scored an equaliser one minute later, taking the match into extra time. The winning goal was scored by Nika Sikharulashvili in the first minutes of the extra time period.

Georgian President Mikheil Kavelashvili congratulated Iberia on their victory and wished them success.

Larne coach Gary Haveron issued a statement following the match, saying: ‘I am devastated, we should not have lost like that’

‘I think we showed our level in Europe once again by coming and fighting a really good Georgian team to the end, equally’, he continued.

Football is one of the most popular sports in the country. Georgia’s national team qualified for the 2024 UEFA Euros Championship in a historic first, but has never made it to the FIFA World Cup.