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| Event type

Football, Men

Date4 – 20 August 2016
StatusOlympic
LocationEstádio do Maracanã, Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro / Estádio Olímpico João Havelange, Engenho de Dentro, Rio de Janeiro / Estádio Nacional de Brasília Mané Garrincha, Brasília / Minerão, Belo Horizonte / Arena Fonte Nova, Salvador / Arena Corinthians, São Paulo / Arena da Amazônia, Manaus
Participants270 from 16 countries
FormatRound-robin pools advance teams to single-elimination tournament of eight teams.

Despite their wonderful record in the FIFA World Cup, with five wins, Brazil had surprisingly never won the Olympic title. Despite a decline in the national game in recent years, 2016 represented Brazil’s best chance of winning that elusive title, particularly with them having home advantage and the likes of world class players Neymar of Barcelona, Lazio midfielder Felipe Anderson, Paris St Germain defender Marquinhos and the rising young stars of the Brazilian game, Gabriel Barbosa and Gabriel Jesus in their squad. The past three winners of the Olympic title had all been from the Americas (Argentina in 2004/ 2008 and Mexico in 2012) and that too was to give the Brazilians a slight edge, but there were a host of teams waiting to spoil their party.

Germany, who also have an impressive World Cup record without winning the Olympic title, were another of the fancied teams in Rio. They qualified after reaching the semi-final of the European Under-21 Championship and coach Horst Hrubesch kept faith in the youngsters that got them to Rio and his side included the Bender twins, Lars and Sven, World Cup winner Matthias Ginter and Arsenal’s Serge Gnabry. Also heading the European challenge was Sweden, winners of their first UEFA Under-21 tournament in 2015. The team they beat on penalties in the final, Portugal, were riding on a wave of national pride their senior team brought to the country by winning the UEFA European Championship in 2016 – their first major international success. Jordan Larsson, the son of former Feyenoord, Celtic and Barcelona forward Henrik Larsson, was pulled out of the Swedish squad just two weeks before the start of the Olympics by the manager of his club side Helsingborgs, because he claimed the club had just one fit striker so they could not afford to let him go to Rio! The Helsingborgs manager was… his father Henrik.

Colombia, with 2014 World Cup star Teo Gutierrez, along with Argentina and the defending champions Mexico, who beat Brazil in the final at London 2012, were all considered to be in with a chance and one could never write off the likes of the 1996 champions Nigeria, who benefited from having Chelsea’s John Obi Mikel in their very young squad. At the start of the Games they had three 19-year-olds, two 18-year-olds and one 17-year old in their squad but, it must be remembered, the great Pelé made his World Cup début at just 17! Argentina won the South American Under-20 tournament to qualify for Rio and their squad contained Atlético Madrid’s Angel Correa and Giovanni Simeone, the tournament’s top scorer with nine goals. He is the son of Atlético Madrid manager and former Argentina international and Olympian Diego Simeone.

The Nigerian squad nearly never made it to Rio. En route, they were stuck in Atlanta, USA, the day before the men’s competition started, with a problem over payment for a flight, and then they had to wait for a replacement plane because the original one was too small to take them down to Manaus for their opening game in the Amazon Rain Forest region. They arrived just hours before the scheduled kick-off. It didn’t do Oghenekaro Etebo any harm as he scored four goals in a 5-4 win over Japan in the first Olympic men’s match to see nine goals scored in it since 1964, when the UAR beat South Korea 10-0. In another high-scoring opener Seung-Woo Ryu scored an hat-trick as South Korea beat Fiji 8-0 in the highest scoring men’s game since the Soviet Union beat Cuba by the same score in 1984.

Brazil were booed off the pitch after their opening match, which saw them held to a goalless draw by 10-man South Africa, and they were jeered by their own fans again in the second game against the débutant outsiders Iraq, as they were held to a goalless draw again. They were in danger of being eliminated and, with it, the chance of that elusive Olympic gold medal, but they eventually gave their fans something to cheer when they beat group leaders Denmark to set up a meeting with their fellow South Americans Colombia in the knockout stage.

In their second group game, Erick Gutiérrez scored four second half goals for the defending champions Mexico, to turn around a 1-0 half-time deficit against Fiji. Sweden, one of the favourites finished bottom of their group but another of the European hopefuls, Portugal, qualified and set up an interesting last-eight clash with Germany. Like Brazil, Germany went into their final group game winless after two draws but that all changed when they beat Fiji 10-0, with Nils Petersen scoring five goals and Max Meyer bagging a hat-trick. It was the biggest win at the Olympics since that UAR win back in 1964.

At last Neymar got onto the score-sheet as Brazil beat Colombia in an ill-tempered match as they reached the semi-finals, and Germany, like Brazil, moved closer to their first Olympic title with a comfortable 5-0 win over Portugal in the quarters, with Serge Gnabry maintaining his record of scoring in every game. Nigeria reached their third semi-final in seven Olympics, and completing the last four line-up was Honduras, which assured them of their highest ever finish and the hope of their first ever Olympic medal in any sport.

Sadly for the Hondurans their first medal was not to be gold or silver, as there was no stopping the now rampant Brazilians, as Neymar opened the scoring after just 14 seconds of their semi-final encounter. It was the fastest ever Olympic goal, beating by six seconds the one scored by Janine Beckie of Canada in their opening Rio match against Australia two weeks earlier. Neymar scored again in the final minute as they ousted the plucky qualifiers 6-0. Having seen their women qualify for the final the day before, the German men beat Nigeria thanks to an early goal from Lukas Klostermann and an 89th minute a second goal from Nils Petersen as they became the first country to contest both men’s and women’s finals at the same Olympics.

Nigeria won their first medal of the Games by beating Honduras 3-2 in the bronze medal match. At 3-0, thanks to goals from Sadiq Umar (2) and Aminu Umar, it looked all over, but Anthony Lozano pulled one back for Honduras in the 71st minute and Marcelo Pereira headed home a second four minutes form time to make it a nervous final few minutes. The Africans held on, however, for that first medal in Rio and their third football one to go with the gold they won in 1996 and silver in 2008.

The final, played in front of 79,000 fanatical Brazilians in the Maracanã, saw Brazil and Germany dish up a feast of non-stop football, which was a complete contrast to the last time these two teams met in a major competition, the semi-final of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, when Germany won 7-1. By the time Neymar opened the scoring for the hosts in the 27th minute it could well have been Germany who were in the lead as they had hit the woodwork several times. Far from feeling down at conceding, Germany kept coming at Brazil, but had to wait until the 59th minute before Max Meyer broke them down and equalised. It was the first goal Brazil had conceded in 509 minutes of football at these Games. Both sides continued to press for the winning goal in the remainder of the 90 minutes and the period of extra-time that followed but, despite some very tired legs towards the end, it remained 1-1 and it was down to penalties to decide the first men’s Olympic final to go to a shoot-out since Cameroon beat Spain in 2000.

Germany took the first spot-kick and like each of the first eight, was converted. Each side had one kick left before a possible sudden-death but Freiburg striker Nils Petersen saw his kick saved by Wéverton. It was now down to Neymar, the Brazil captain who, along with his team-mates, had been jeered and booed by the home fans after their first two lacklustre performances to become a national hero. That status was achieved by converting that final spot-kick as he gave Brazil their first ever Olympic football gold medal. Of course, Brazil wanted to win as many medals as they could on home soil, but the one medal they desperately wanted more than any other was the elusive football gold, and they got it.

PosNumberTeamNOC
1BrazilBRAGold
1 Wéverton
2 Zeca
3 Rodrigo Caio
4 Marquinhos
5 Renato Augusto
6 Douglas Santos
7 Luan
8 Rafinha
9 Gabriel Barbosa
10 Neymar
11 Gabriel Jesus
12 Walace
13 William
14 Luan
15 Rodrigo Dourado
16 Thiago Maia
17 Felipe Anderson
Jean DNS
Fernando Prass DNS
Gustavo Henrique DNS
18 Uilson DNS
Valdívia DNS
Felipe Vizeu DNS
CoachRogério Micale
2GermanyGERSilver
1Timo Horn
2Jeremy Toljan
3Lukas Klostermann
4Matthias Ginter
5Niklas Süle
6Sven Bender
7Max Meyer
8Lars Bender
9Davie Selke
10Leon Goretzka
11Julian Brandt
13Philipp Max
14Robert Bauer
15Max Christiansen
16Grischa Prömel
17Serge Gnabry
18Nils Petersen
Leonardo Bittencourt DNS
Christian Günter DNS
12Jannik Huth DNS
Sebastian Kerk DNS
22Eric Oelschlägel DNS
CoachHorst Hrubesch
3NigeriaNGRBronze
1Daniel Akpeyi
2Muenfuh Sincere
3Kingsley Madu
4Abdullahi Shehu
5Saturday Erimuya
6William Troost-Ekong
7Aminu Umar
8Oghenekaro Etebo
9Imoh Ezekiel
10John Obi Mikel
11Junior Ajayi
12Popoola Saliu
13Sadiq Umar
14Okechukwu Azubuike
15Ndifreke Udo
16Stanley Amuzie
17Usman Muhammed
18Emmanuel Daniel
Taiwo Awoniyi DNS
Yusuf Bala DNS
Sopuruchi Dimgba DNS
Saviour Godwin DNS
CoachSamson Siasia
4HondurasHON
1Luis López
2Jhonathan Paz
3Marcelo Pereira
4Kevin Álvarez
5Allans Vargas
6Bryan Acosta
7Brayan Ramírez
8Johnny Palacios
9Antony Lozano
10Óscar Salas
11Marcelo Espinal
12Romell Quioto
13Jhow Benavídez
15Allan Banegas
16Brayan García
17Alberth Elis
José Barralaga DNS
Donis Escober DNS
Darwin Espinal DNS
18Harold Fonseca DNS
Kevin López DNS
14Élder Torres DNS
CoachJorge Luis Pinto
5Republic of KoreaKOR
1Kim Dong-Jun
2Sim Sang-Min
3Lee Seul-Chan
4Kim Min-Tae
5Choi Gyu-Baek
6Jang Hyeon-Su
7Son Heung-Min
8Mun Chang-Jin
9Seok Hyeon-Jun
10Ryu Seung-Wu
11Hwang Hui-Chan
12Lee Chan-Dong
14Park Yong-Wu
15Jeong Seung-Hyeon
16Gwon Chang-Hun
17Lee Chang-Min
18Gu Seong-Yun
Hwang Ui-Jo DNS
Lee Chang-Geun DNS
Lee Gwang-Hyeok DNS
13Park Dong-Jin DNS
CoachSin Tae-Yong
6PortugalPOR
1Bruno Varela
2Ricardo Esgaio
3Tiago Ilori
4Tobias Figueiredo
5Edgar Ié
6Tomás Podstawski
7André Martins
8Sérgio Oliveira
9Gonçalo Paciência
10Bruno Fernandes
11Salvador Agra
13 Pité
14 Paulo Henrique
15Fernando Fonseca
16Chico Ramos
17Carlos Mané
18Tiago Silva
12Joel Pereira DNS
Ivo Rodrigues DNS
Leandro Silva DNS
Frederico Venâncio DNS
João Virgínia DNS
Coach Rui Jorge
7ColombiaCOL
1Cristian Bonilla
2William Tesillo
3Deivy Alexander Balanta
4Deiver Machado
5Felipe Aguilar
6Jefferson Lerma
7Arley José Rodríguez
8Dorlan Pabón
9Miguel Borja
10Teófilo Gutiérrez
11Harold Preciado
12Andrés Roa
13Helibelton Palacios
14Sebastián Pérez
15Wilmar Barrios
16Kevin Balanta
17Cristian Borja
Jarlan Junior Barrera DNS
18Luis Hurtado DNS
19Juan Sebastián Quintero DNS
Andrés Rentería DNS
Luis Vásquez DNS
CoachCarlos Restrepo
8DenmarkDEN
1Jeppe Højbjerg
2Mikkel Desler
3Kasper Larsen
4Eddi Gomes
5Jakob Blåbjerg
6Andreas Maxsø
7Lasse Vibe
8Mathias Hebo Rasmussen
9Nicolai Brock-Madsen
10Jacob Bruun Larsen
11Jacob Barrett Laursen
12Frederik Børsting
13Emil Larsen
14Casper Nielsen
15Pascal Gregor
16Robert Skov
17Jens Jønsson
18Lukas Fernandes DNS
Thomas Hagelskjar DNS
Nicolai Poulsen DNS
Asger Sørensen DNS
CoachNiels Frederiksen
9MexicoMEX
1Alfredo Talavera
2José Abella
4César Montes
5Michael Pérez
6Jorge Torres
7Rodolfo Pizarro
8Hirving Lozano
9Oribe Peralta
10Víctor Guzmán
11Marco Bueno
13Carlos Salcedo
14Erick Aguirre
15Erick Gutiérrez
16Carlos Cisneros
17Arturo González
18Erick Torres
20Raúl López
21Carlos Fierro
12Gibrán Lajud DNS
3Jordán Silva DNS
CoachRaúl Gutiérrez
10JapanJPN
1Masatoshi Kushibiki
2Sei Muroya
3Wataru Endo
4Hiroki Fujiharu
5Naomichi Ueda
6Tsukasa Shiotani
7Riki Harakawa
8Ryota Oshima
9Shinya Yajima
10Shoya Nakajima
11Musashi Suzuki
12Kosuke Nakamura
13Shinzo Koroki
14Yosuke Ideguchi
15Masashi Kamekawa
16Takuma Asano
18Takumi Minamino
17Takuya Iwanami DNS
Yuya Kubo DNS
Shinnosuke Nakatani DNS
Gakuto Notsuda DNS
Daichi Sugimoto DNS
CoachMakoto Teguramori
11ArgentinaARG
1Gerónimo Rulli
2Lautaro Gianetti
3Alexis Soto
4José Luis Gómez
5Lucas Romero
6Víctor Cuesta
7Cristian Pavón
8Santiago Ascacibar
9Jonathan Calleri
10Ángel Correa
11Giovanni Simeone
14Giovani Lo Celso
15Lisandro Magállan
16Leandro Vega
17Mauricio Martínez
18Cristian Espinoza
13Joaquín Arzura DNS
Martín Benítez DNS
Manuel Lanzini DNS
Nicolás Martín Tripichio DNS
Luis Ezequiel Unsain DNS
12Axel Werner DNS
CoachJulio Olarticoechea
12IraqIRQ
2Ahmad Ibrahim Khalaf
4 Mustafa Nadhim
5 Ali Faez
6 Ali Adnan
7 Hammadi Ahmed
8 Mohannad Abdul-Raheem
9 Mahdi Kamel
10Ali Husni
11 Humam Tariq
12 Mohammed Hameed
13 Sherko Karim
14Saad Natiq
15 Dhurgham Ismael
16 Saad Abdul-Amir
17 Alaa Ali
18Amjad Attwan
Ammar Abdul Hussein DNS
Bashar Resan DNS
Karar Ibrahim DNS
Mohammed Maan DNS
3Hawbir Mustafa DNS
1Fahad Talib DNS
CoachAbdulghani Al-Ghazali
13South AfricaRSA
2Mulomowandau Mathoho
3Terciuos Malepe
4Mothobi Mvala
5Rivaldo Coetzee
6Kwandakwensizwa Mngonyama
7Menzi Masuku
9Tashreeq Morris
10Keagan Dolly
11Maphosa Modiba
12Lebo Mothiba
13Abbubaker Mobara
14Gift Motupa
15Phumlani Ntshangase
16Itumeleng Khune
17Tebogo Moerane
18Deolin Mekoa
19Andile Fikizolo
21Thabiso Kutumela
1Jody February DNS
Nkosingiphile Gumede DNS
Thapelo Morena DNS
8Tyroane Sandows DNS
CoachOwen Da Gama
14AlgeriaALG
2Miloud Rebiai
3Ayoub Abdellaoui
4Abdelghani Demmou
5Ryad Keniche
6Mohamed Benkhemassa
7Baghdad Bounedjah
8Haris Belkebla
9Mohammed Benkablia
10Abderrahmane Meziane
11Zakarya Haddouche
12Abdelraouf Benguit
13Oussama Darfalou
14Sofiane Bendebka
15Houari Ferhani
16Farid Chaal
17Zakaria Draoui
18Rachid Ait Atmane
22Oussama Methazem
Abdelhakim Amokrane DNS
Redouane Cherifi DNS
Messala Merbah DNS
1Abdelkader Salhi DNS
CoachPierre-André Schürmann
15SwedenSWE
1Andreas Linde
2Adam Lundqvist
3Alexander Milošević
4Joakim Nilsson
5Pa Konate
6Abdul Khalili
7Simon Tibbling
8Alexander Fransson
9Robin Quaison
10Muamer Tanković
11Astrit Ajdarević
12Mikael Ishak
13Jacob Une Larsson
17Ken Sema
21Valmir Berisha
18Tim Erlandsson DNS
Jesper Johansson DNS
Alexander Leksell DNS
Adnan Marić DNS
Ali Suljić DNS
16Jordan Larsson DNS
15Noah Sonko Sundberg DNS
14Sebastian Starke Hedlund DNS
CoachHåkan Ericson
16FijiFIJ
1Simione Tamanisau
2Praneel Naidu
3Filipe Baravilala
4Jale Dreloa
5Tony Tuivuna
6Anish Khem
7Nickel Chand
8Setareki Hughes
9Roy Krishna
10Savenaca, Ratu Nakalevu
11Alvin Singh
12Tevita, Ratu Waranaivalu
13Iosefo Verevou
14Samuela Nabenia
15Saula Waqa
16Joseph Turagabeci
18Shaneel Naidu DNS
CoachFrank Farina

Preliminary Round

Date4 – 10 August 2016

Group A

PosTeamNOCWinsTiesLossesPointsGoals
1BrazilBRA12054-0Q
2DenmarkDEN11141-4Q
3IraqIRQ03031-1
4South AfricaRSA02121-2
MatchDate/TimeTeamNOCResultTeamNOC
Match #104 Aug 13:00DenmarkDEN0 – 0IraqIRQ
Match #204 Aug 16:00BrazilBRA0 – 0South AfricaRSA
Match #307 Aug 19:00DenmarkDEN1 – 0South AfricaRSA
Match #407 Aug 22:00BrazilBRA0 – 0IraqIRQ
Match #510 Aug 22:00BrazilBRA4 – 0DenmarkDEN
Match #610 Aug 22:00IraqIRQ1 – 1South AfricaRSA

Group B

PosTeamNOCWinsTiesLossesPointsGoals
1NigeriaNGR20166-6Q
2ColombiaCOL12056-4Q
3JapanJPN11147-7
4SwedenSWE01212-4
MatchDate/TimeTeamNOCResultTeamNOC
Match #104 Aug 19:00ColombiaCOL2 – 2SwedenSWE
Match #204 Aug 22:00NigeriaNGR5 – 4JapanJPN
Match #307 Aug 19:00NigeriaNGR1 – 0SwedenSWE
Match #407 Aug 22:00JapanJPN2 – 2ColombiaCOL
Match #510 Aug 19:00ColombiaCOL2 – 0NigeriaNGR
Match #610 Aug 19:00JapanJPN1 – 0SwedenSWE

Group C

PosTeamNOCWinsTiesLossesPointsGoals
1Republic of KoreaKOR210712-3Q
2GermanyGER120515-5Q
3MexicoMEX11147-4
4FijiFIJ00301-23
MatchDate/TimeTeamNOCResultTeamNOC
Match #104 Aug 20:00Republic of KoreaKOR8 – 0FijiFIJ
Match #204 Aug 17:00GermanyGER2 – 2MexicoMEX
Match #307 Aug 13:00MexicoMEX5 – 1FijiFIJ
Match #407 Aug 16:00GermanyGER3 – 3Republic of KoreaKOR
Match #510 Aug 16:00GermanyGER10 – 0FijiFIJ
Match #610 Aug 16:00Republic of KoreaKOR1 – 0MexicoMEX

Group D

PosTeamNOCWinsTiesLossesPointsGoals
1PortugalPOR21075-2Q
2HondurasHON11145-5Q
3ArgentinaARG11143-4
4AlgeriaALG01214-6
MatchDate/TimeTeamNOCResultTeamNOC
Match #104 Aug 15:00HondurasHON3 – 2AlgeriaALG
Match #204 Aug 18:00PortugalPOR2 – 0ArgentinaARG
Match #307 Aug 15:00PortugalPOR2 – 1HondurasHON
Match #407 Aug 18:00ArgentinaARG2 – 1AlgeriaALG
Match #510 Aug 13:00AlgeriaALG1 – 1PortugalPOR
Match #610 Aug 13:00ArgentinaARG1 – 1HondurasHON

Quarter-Finals

Date13 August 2016
FormatWinners of each match advanced to semi-finals.
MatchDate/TimeCompetitorsNOCResultCompetitorsNOC
Match #113 Aug 13:00GermanyGER4 – 0PortugalPOR
Match #213 Aug 16:00NigeriaNGR2 – 0DenmarkDEN
Match #313 Aug 19:00HondurasHON1 – 0Republic of KoreaKOR
Match #413 Aug 22:00BrazilBRA2 – 0ColombiaCOL

Semi-Finals

Date17 August 2016
FormatWinners of each match advanced to final round.
MatchDate/TimeCompetitorsNOCResultCompetitorsNOC
Match #117 Aug 13:00BrazilBRA6 – 0HondurasHON
Match #217 Aug 16:00GermanyGER2 – 0NigeriaNGR

Final Round

Date20 August 2016
FormatMedal round.
MatchDate/TimeCompetitorsNOCResultCompetitorsNOC
Match 1/220 Aug 17:30BrazilBRA1 – 1GermanyGERAET, 5-4 PS
Match 3/420 Aug 13:00NigeriaNGR3 – 2HondurasHON