Men’s Olympic football at Paris 2024: France and Argentina headline knockout rounds
Men’s football at the Olympics this year has been a spectacle so far, with some tantalising knockout round clashes making for must-see viewing going forward.
The conclusion of Group A and B gave us our first ties of the next stage, with the headline act coming in the form of hosts France taking on Argentina. It is a huge clash with both of these nations tipped to be among the favourites to take home the gold.
Either one of them going home so early on will blow the race for the title wide open.
Argentina’s shock defeat to Morocco in their Paris opener paved the way for the African nation to top the group with a thumping 3-0 victory over Iraq, with the South Americans finishing second.
Morocco will face the United States, who are into the knockout stages of the tournament for the first time since Sydney 2000 where they went on to finish just outside the medals in fourth, after seeing off Guinea 3-0.
It is history for the former, meanwhile, having never made it out of the group stages at the Games since competing with the Under-23s prior to Paris.
Spain opted to heavily rotate in their final group game against Egypt but saw themselves pushed down into second following a 2-1 defeat, while the Egyptians took the top spot. As a result, Spain will take on Japan, who were Group D victors with a 1-0 win over Israel.
Elsewhere in that group, a tense 1-0 victory over Mali means that Paraguay are into the last eight of the men’s tournament for the first time since Athens 2004, where they stormed to a silver medal. A tough test awaits them in the form of Egypt.
The latter will be hoping they can better their multiple quarter-final runs, having always fallen at this hurdle in the past, most recently at Tokyo 2020 three years ago.