Football, Men

Predictions for the outcome of the Olympic men’s football tournament are generally more difficult than for the women’s. While the latter is played by national teams that also compete at World and continental championships, male teams are under-23 teams complimented by up to three overaged players. There is no other world-wide tournament for these teams, which makes it difficult to assess their strength. Nevertheless, the countries that excelled at the last senior World and European championships were expected on the podium in Paris as well. Strangely, England would have qualified as winners of the 2023 UEFA European Under-21 championship but, with England not being affiliated to the IOC, and there being no agreement in place for them to represent Great Britain, they were not eligible to take part. Such an agreement did exist for the England women, however, and they would have been the Great Britain representatives had they qualified.

Of the top four of the 2022 World Championship, only Croatia did not qualify for Paris, but Argentina and hosts France were expected to do well. Morocco was considered an outsider for a medal. Spain became European champions just weeks before the Olympics and, as always, were considered amongst the favorites. On the other hand, six of the 16 participating teams were either complete newcomers or did not qualify for at least the three previous editions of the Olympic tournament: Israel, Ukraine, Paraguay, the United States, Guinea, and Uzbekistan. Only six teams returned after playing in Tokyo 2020.

The opening game was played two days prior to the official 2024 opening ceremony and ended in a 2-1 surprise victory of Morocco over Argentina in a controversial ending. Argentina levelled the score at 2-2 in the 15th minute of added time. Moroccan fans protested throwing bottles, cups, and flares into the pitch before invading the playing area. Officials told spectators to leave the stadium as the match was over, but it was not over, and when play resumed two hours later, the stadium was virtually empty and VAR ruled out the Argentinian goal. Argentina and Morocco both advanced, however, with two victories each from a relatively equal group B. No team went home without at least one win. A similar upset was achieved by Egypt, who beat Spain 2-1 in group C. Because this was the third match in the group, however, Spain had already qualified for the quarter-final, after two victories in their opening matches. Spain and Egypt took the top two places in the group fairly easily. Interestingly, the same two teams occupied the top two places in group C at the previous Olympics.

In group A, the results were quite straight forward. France won all their three games without conceding a goal and claimed the top spot. The USA placed second, convincingly beating New Zealand and Guinea. The same could be said for group D, where Japan (3 wins) and Paraguay (2 wins) distanced underdogs Mali and Israel (both with just one draw).

Not unexpectedly, in the quarter-finals Morocco polished off the USA 4-0 and Spain beat Japan 3-0. In a match between lower-rated teams, Egypt required a penalty shootout to defeat Paraguay, following a 1-1 draw after 120 minutes. The top match of the quarter-final saw Thierry Henry’s France narrowly beat Argentina 1-0 by an early goal scored by Jean-Philippe Mateta, of the English club Crystal Palace. It was a highly charged match after Argentina players sang a derogatory song about French players at the Copa America. A brawl ensued at the end of the Olympic match.

In both semi-finals, European teams (Spain and France) met African teams (Morocco and Egypt) and managed to hold Africa at bay. In their match, Spain came back in the second half, equalizing Morocco’s lead, and qualified for the final thanks to a late goal by Juanlu Sánchez. Egypt also performed well, leading until Mateta’s equalizer in the 83rd minute. France was forced into extra time, eventually prevailing 3-1.

In the bronze medal match, a clearly superior Moroccan team dumped Egypt by 6-0, the clearest win of the tournament. The more spectacular game was the final, attended by 44.000 at the Parc des Princes, in Paris, on 9 August 2024. Way into the second half, Spain held on to a 3-1 lead from the first half. France almost seemed to have given up when Maghnès Akliouche scored to make it 2-3 in the 79th minute. In the third minute of stoppage time, France was awarded a penalty, converted by top scorer Jean-Philippe Mateta. The match went into extra-time, where Spain’s Sergio Camello scored twice, securing gold for Spain. It was their second gold after 1992 on home turf, and three silvers (1920, 2000, and 2020).

Like in the women’s tournament, the top scorer did not play for one of the finalists. Morocco’s Soufiane Rahimi scored at least once in all six matches played. The total number of goals increased slightly from 93, in Tokyo, to 96 in Paris. Accordingly, the average for the 32 matches was 3.0, compared to 2.9 in Tokyo.