Julius Okorie
Hosts France scratched a lone goal victory over Argentina to reach the men’s soccer semifinals at the Paris Olympics on Friday, in a match that recorded a fight between the players immediately after the final whistle.
Argentina were booed throughout the match by a hostile crowd, which celebrated early on when striker Jean-Philippe Mateta headed home in the fifth minute for coach Thierry Henry’s team, which will face Egypt in the last four on Monday in Lyon.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelMateta was celebrating with Captain Alexandre Lacazette when they noticed the skirmish. Lacazette rushed back to help break it up, as did Henry and counterpart Javier Mascherano, who appeared to block one of his own staff members from joining in.
“I went to shake the opposing coach’s hand and all of a sudden I saw a lot of things happening,” Henry said. “I don’t like seeing this kind of thing. It wasn’t necessary.”
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France thought they had scored again with a few minutes left in regulation time, but Nigeria born Michael Olise’s effort was ruled out when a video replay showed midfielder, Maghnes Akliouche, had fouled an Argentina player moments earlier.
Both Argentina and France are past Olympic Champions, France won their only Olympic title in 1984 same year they won the European Championship, while Argentina have won the title twice 2004 in Athens and 2008 in Beijing China, but met a very unfriendly Bordeaux crowd on Friday in their quest to go for a third title.
Meanwhile, Egypt fought back tenaciously to overcome Paraguay on Friday night to book a place in the semifinals where they will face France on Monday.
Paraguay led by a lone goal but after Egypt’s equaliser, the match went into extra time without goals leading to penalty shootout which Egypt won 5-4.
The second semifinal will see Spain face ruthless Morocco who walloped USA 4-0 in the quarterfinal on Friday. Spain had earlier thrashed Japan 3-0 to advance to the semis. Brazil won the men’s football event of the last Olympics in Japan.
Julius Okorie is Chief Sports and Entertainment Correspondent for Prime Business Africa. He began his journalism career with the Champion Newspaper and Sporting Champion and later moved on to Daily Independent and the Nation Newspapers. Okorie joined Prime Business Africa in 2024 bringing on board 20 years of experience in writing investigative news on Sports and Entertainment. His well researched and highly informative articles on Sports Business and general entertainment are followed by a wide range of audience.
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