Hosts France defeated Argentina 1-x at Bordeaux to qualify for the semifinal of the Olympics on Friday night time in a excessive voltage conflict with loads of latest historical past behind it.
The hosts went 1-0 up within the fifth minute when Crystal Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta scored with an inch good header off former Eagles teammate Michael Olise’s nook. In the end, that was all that took for the Le Blues to advance to the following spherical as Argentina have been left to rue their missed probabilities.
The French contingent will now face Egypt of their semifinal fixture.
The rivalry between France and Argentina has escalated for the reason that 2022 World Cup last, when Argentina beat then reigning champions France on penalties, avenging a second-round loss in opposition to France 4 years earlier.
That 2022 last, which ended 3-3 after additional time, was overshadowed by racist chants from some Argentinian supporters within the stands.
Within the aftermath, the Latin American facet’s gamers additionally mocked France, the French crew and famous person Kylian Mbappe.
Issues have taken a flip for the more severe after Argentina received the Copa America in July, after which some gamers have been caught singing the identical racist chants concentrating on French gamers of African descent.
Different quarterfinal outcomes
Within the different quarterfinal, Morocco reached the Olympic males’s soccer semi-finals for the primary time with a convincing 4-0 win over america that included two penalties on the Parc des Princes on Friday.
Morocco dominated from the begin to prevail of their first-ever Olympic knockout match to arrange a conflict with Spain who defeated Japan 3-0 in their very own quarterfinal.
Backed by their passionate supporters who packed the Paris St Germain stadium, Morocco opened the scoring within the twenty ninth minute when Soufiane Rahimi earned them a penalty and transformed for his fifth objective of the event.
Ilias Akhomach doubled their lead with a close-range end from Abde Ezzalzouli’s cross in a superb crew transfer simply previous the hour mark earlier than PSG’s Achraf Hakimi acquired on the scoresheet after a superb solo run to make it 3-0 20 minutes from time.
Substitute Mehdi Maouhoub sealed the rout with one other penalty in stoppage time following a VAR assessment for a handball.