Olympics: Jean-Philippe Mateta’s goal helps France defeat Argentina 1-0 and qualify for semifinals

Hosts France defeated Argentina 1-x at Bordeaux to qualify for the semifinal of the Olympics on Friday night in a high voltage clash with plenty of recent history behind it.

The hosts went 1-0 up in the 5th minute when Crystal Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta scored with an inch perfect header off former Eagles teammate Michael Olise’s corner. Ultimately, that was all that took for the Le Blues to advance to the next round as Argentina were left to rue their missed chances.

The French contingent will now face Egypt in their semifinal fixture.

The rivalry between France and Argentina has escalated since the 2022 World Cup final, when Argentina beat then reigning champions France on penalties, avenging a second-round loss against France four years earlier.

That 2022 final, which ended 3-3 after extra time, was overshadowed by racist chants from some Argentinian supporters in the stands.

In the aftermath, the Latin American side’s players also mocked France, the French team and superstar Kylian Mbappe.

Things have taken a turn for the worse after Argentina won the Copa America in July, after which some players were caught singing the same racist chants targeting French players of African descent.

Other quarterfinal results

In the other quarterfinal, Morocco reached the Olympic men’s football semi-finals for the first time with a resounding 4-0 win over the United States that included two penalties at the Parc des Princes on Friday.

Morocco dominated from the start to prevail in their first-ever Olympic knockout match to set up a clash with Spain who defeated Japan 3-0 in their own quarterfinal.

Backed by their passionate supporters who packed the Paris St Germain stadium, Morocco opened the scoring in the 29th minute when Soufiane Rahimi earned them a penalty and converted for his fifth goal of the tournament.

Ilias Akhomach doubled their lead with a close-range finish from Abde Ezzalzouli’s cross in a brilliant team move just past the hour mark before PSG’s Achraf Hakimi got on the scoresheet after a fine solo run to make it 3-0 20 minutes from time.

Substitute Mehdi Maouhoub sealed the rout with another penalty in stoppage time following a VAR review for a handball.

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