Jean-Philippe Mateta scored the only goal as France won 1-0 in their grudge match with Argentina on Friday to reach the Olympic men’s football semi-finals, joining Spain, Morocco and Egypt in the last four.
Crystal Palace striker Mateta struck five minutes into the quarter-final in Bordeaux, meeting Michael Olise’s corner with a superb near-post header.
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That proved enough for the hosts, coached by Thierry Henry, to reach the last four and stay in contention to win gold in Paris next Friday, August 9.
It was the first meeting of the nations since Argentina players were recorded singing racist chants about their French counterparts as they celebrated winning the Copa America in mid-July.
FIFA announced it would investigate the chants, which targeted France’s star striker Kylian Mbappe among others and included racist and homophobic insults.
The Argentina team were met with a hostile welcome in Bordeaux, where the crowd loudly jeered their national anthem as the sides also met for the first time since the 2022 World Cup final which the South Americans won on penalties.
Tensions also spilled over at full-time with rival players and staff clashing on the pitch and confrontations continuing down the tunnel.
Henry said midfielder Enzo Millot, who had been substituted late on, was shown a red card after the final whistle.
“He wasn’t on the pitch. Maybe you get sent off because you get a second yellow card to stop someone running through on goal, not when you are on the bench. I am really not happy about that,” Henry told broadcaster France 3.
Giuliano Simeone and Julian Alvarez missed chances for Javier Mascherano’s Argentina, and the exit of the two-time gold medallists means the winner of men’s football gold will not come from Latin America for the first time since Cameroon triumphed in Sydney in 2000.
France could have won by a wider margin, but Olise had a late second goal disallowed for a foul in the build-up.
Spain and Morocco march on
They will now be heavy favourites to win a semi-final in Lyon on Monday against Egypt, who beat Paraguay 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in Marseille.
Ibrahim Adel was Egypt’s hero, scoring a late equaliser in normal time and then converting the winning penalty in the shoot-out, in which Paraguay’s Marcelo Perez was the only player to fail to score.
Earlier a brilliant brace by Barcelona’s Fermin Lopez helped fire Spain to a 3-0 win over Japan in Lyon.
Lopez, a member of Spain’s triumphant Euro 2024 squad, blasted in the opener from range in the 11th minute.
The Barcelona midfielder struck again on 73 minutes with another goal of the highest quality as he controlled a Sergio Gomez corner before volleying in from the edge of the box.
Captain Abel Ruiz wrapped up the win for Spain, Olympic champions in 1992 and silver medallists three years ago in Tokyo.
Spain went through to a last-four clash in Marseille with Morocco, who outclassed the United States, winning 4-0 in Paris.
Soufiane Rahimi opened the scoring from the penalty spot after he was fouled in the box just before the half-hour mark.
That was the fifth goal in four games for the tournament’s top scorer.
Morocco doubled their lead on 63 minutes when Abde Ezzalzouli set up Ilias Akhomach to finish at the near post.
Captain Achraf Hakimi, playing on his Paris Saint-Germain home ground, ran through to make it 3-0 and substitute Mehdi Maouhoub added another penalty in stoppage time.
“If we keep playing like this we will deserve to be in the final,” said Akhomach.
“Other countries might be talked about more than us but we know what we want. We came here to win.”
Quadri Olaitan is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, public affairs, and human-interest stories.
