I’ll leave you with Nick Ames’ report from Bordeaux. Thanks for your company – goodnight.
Enzo Millot was given a red card after that business at the end, so I guess his tournament is over.
The France team are back on their field now, celebrating joyously with their fans. Whatever happens from here, they’ll remember this night with the utmost fondness. We still don’t know exactly what happened at the end, though I’m sure we’ll get chapter and verse eventually.
Now a load of people have charged towards the tunnel, which suggests it’s going off in there. I’ve never seen an Olympics football match like this. Haven’t seen many games like it full stop, certainly not in the modern era.
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There’s an almighty melee involving 20 or 30 people, players and coaching staff. I’ve no idea what happened but it’s not exactly a surprise. Even now, a minute after it started, a few of them are still at it.
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Full time: France 1-0 Argentina
France will play Egypt in the semi-final after holding off Argentina on a febrile night in Bordeaux. Jean-Philippe Mateta’s superb early header settled a game of rare intensity. And now it is kicking off big time.
90+12 min Mateta almost destroys the crossbar, though he’s been flagged offside.
90+9 min: Great chance for Argentina! A low cross from the left beats everyone and reaches Gondou beyond the far post, but the ball bounces awkwardly and he shins it miles over the bar.
90+8 min A good Argentina break ends with Simeone curling wastefully over from 25 yards. Echeverri was in a really good position to his left.
90+7 min Otamendi is penalised for manhandling Mateta, which leads to more complaints from Argentina. They’re not going quietly.
90+6 min Olise makes an excellent challenge on Otamendi, who pulled down Echeverri’s cross and was about to shoot. Otamendi was wrongly flagged offside, which meant Argentina didn’t get the corner.
90+5 min Magassa concedes a silly free-kick for a challenge on Simeone, then throws the ball away and is booked.
90+5 min: France substitution Soungoutou Magassa replaces Enzo Millot.
90+4 min: Good save by Restes! Gondou gets away on the left side of the area and blasts a shot towards goal. Restes is well positioned and saves with his legs.
90+3 min Echeverri curls over from 25 yards. Don’t be a hero, son.
90+2 min This is chaos. Now Gondou goes down holding his face after an aerial challenge, though he soon gets to his feet for the resulting free-kick.
90 min: France hit the bar! Olise’s free-kick from the left is met at the far post byBade, whose looping header beats Rulli and hits the top of the bar.
There will be 10 minutes of added time.
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90 min: Argentina substitution Claudio Echeverri comes on for Medina. And Lujan is on for Garcia.
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89 min There will be loads of added time because of that incident. Argentina need to refocus; they’ve been too busy looking for trouble and have created nothing since Alvarez’s chance in the 66th minute.
NO GOAL! France 1-0 Argentina
Bordeaux has gone wild (again). Akliouche has also been booked for the challenge. It was probably the right decision but, oh I don’t know.
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There’s a suggestion that Akliouche fouled a defender before knocking the ball across to Olise. Hmm, it probably is a foul but I don’t envy the referee.
85 min What’s going on here? There’s a VAR check!
Michael Olise has put France in the semi-finals, and even the coach Thierry Henry has changed down the touchline to join the celebrations. The two substitutes made it, with Kalimuendo drawing three defenders towards him before poking a pass infield to Akliouche. He beat another and squared the ball to Olise, whose shot on the turn took a slight but crucial deflection off Garcia.
This means so much to France. Henry marches back down the touchline, wild-eyed and punching his chest.
GOAL! France 2-0 Argentina (Olise 84)
Bordeaux has gone wild!
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83 min Garcia is booked for a lunge at Akliouche. He’ll miss the semi-final if Argentina get there.
81 min Kalimuendo wins a corner for France, who have managed this second half pretty well. At no stage have they been under the kind of pressure they were in the 20 minutes before half-time.
79 min: Double substitution for France Maghnes Akliouche and Arnaud Kalimuendo replace Joris Chotard and Alexandre Lacazette. He’s put quite a shift in.
77 min “The referee seems awfully eager to call fouls on France,” says Joe Pearson. “I understand not wanting a ‘Battle of Bordeaux’, but he appears a little free with the calls and the cards.”
Interesting, I hadn’t really picked up on that. Talking of which, the keeper Restes has just been booked for something or other.
76 min: Argentina substitution The defender Julio Soler, who came on at half-time, has been replaced by another forward, Luciano Gondou.
75 min Bade wins a shoulder charge against Beltran, then roars in his face and beats hs chest in celebration.
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72 min We should have had a sweepstake on who would get the first red card. I’ll be astonishing if there isn’t one at some stage, even if it’s after the final whistle.
69 min Olise’s shot from the edge of the area is well blocked. France are having a good spell, helped by a slight loss of focus by Argentina. They’ve been far too frantic of late, playing as if it’s the last five minutes. Their best spells in this game have all been when they have played slick, almost dispassionate football.
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68 min: Just over from Mateta! Sildillia wins a corner for France, their first of the second half. And it almost leads to a repeat of the goal. Olise again curled it to the near post, where Mateta times his run perfectly away from Otamendi. This time, however, he powered a header over the bar rather than into the far corner.
67 min Mateta leaves an Argentina defender rolling round on the deck. The referee decides it was a fair challenge but then penalises Lacazette moments later.
66 min An in-form Alvarez would have taken that chance nine times out of 10. It was a cracking move too, straight through the heart of France.
66 min: Great chance for Argentina! Beltran’s first contribution is a quick angled through pass to Alvarez, who controls it immaculately on the run only to waft over from 12 yards.
64 min: Argentina substitution Lucas Beltran comes on for Kevin Zenon. Turns out Beltran was the substitute who was booked in the 55th minute, so he starts on a yellow card.
63 min: France substitution Bradley Locko replaces the limping Adrien Truffert at left-back.
60 min Fernandez makes a marvellous run into the area, only to slip as he tries to take on the last man Lukeba.
59 min Lacazette falls over in the D after a challenge from (I think) Amione. The referee waves him up, and then Lacazette squares up to Amione. Nothing comes of it but somebody is going to throw hands sooner rather than later. And nobody will like to see it when they do.
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58 min After some patient play just outside the area, Alvarez curls an early shot that is too close to Restes.
57 min The match has become bitty, which suits France. But they still need to carry more of a threat when they have the ball. They’re barely bothering to attack now.
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55 min Another yellow card, this time for one of the Argentina substitutes. The coach Javier Mascherano kicks off – and gets booked himself.
53 min Medina is booked for a high tackle on Lukeba.
50 min Alvarez whips the free-kick into the wall.
49 min Lacazette fouls Alvarez just outside the penalty area. This is a chance for Argentina…
49 min Argentina have picked up where they left off at the end of the first half, putting France under constant pressure.
46 min Argentina have made a half-time substitution: Julio Soler for Marco di Cesare.
“I missed the early bit, but I’m glad to hear that France were playing entertainingly; they seem to have given that up from about 15 minutes in, and let Argentina do the actual football,” says Charles Antaki. “I assume that Titi is taking on the pattern set by Didi, and keeping it close? He could do worse, of course, but it’s not always great fun to watch.”
It’s been a bit like one of England’s defeats at major tournaments before this year: fly out of the blocks, score early, threaten a second, then drift deeper and deeper.
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Tonight’s winners will play Egypt in the semi-finals. They’ve just beaten Paraguay 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in Marseille. Morocco v Spain is the other semi-final.
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“The most painful injury I ever suffered on a football field was one I don’t even remember getting: concussion,” says Justin Kavanagh. “I woke up in an ambulance wearing a yellow shirt and blue shorts (though thankfully longer than Mr. Souness’s) and then I had to deal not only with the thumping headache but also with the slow realisation that I wasn’t Brazilian.”
If you want to follow the Olympics proper, this is the link for you.
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Half time: France 1-0 Argentina
Otamendi stalks the referee as the players leave the field, then Lacazette, Mateta and Rulli all get involved. If this game ends 11 v 11, my backside’s a fire engine.
As for the actual football, France made a pulsating start and took an early lead through Mateta’s excellent header. But Argentina kept their cool, at least in possession, and slowly took control of the game. Gio Simeone missed their best chance, heading over from six yards.
45+4 min Seconds later Truffert stays down after a collision with Rulli. It was actually a good save from Rulli, who was quick off his line to dive at Truffert’s feet as the ball ran loose in the area. Truffert then landed very awkwardly.
Play continues for a bit, then the referee stops play. Rulli puts his arm round Mateta, who shoves him away; Otamendi wanders across to give Mateta a mouthful. Nobody likes to see this.
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45+2 min Truffert dangles a leg at Garcia’s cross and sends the ball flying across the face of goal. For a second, because of the camera angle, it looked like a textbook own goal.
45+1 min Three minutes of added time.
45 min The referee plays a good advantage, allowing Medina (I think) to vroom into the area from the right and slide a low cross that is turned behind by Sildillia at the far post. There were no Argentina players in the six-yard box; they needed Haaland rather than Alvarez.
44 min Argentina continue to press for an equaliser. They look sharper than France, though that might just be the nature of the game – one team forcing the issue, the other happy to play on the counter.
40 min Kone will miss the semi-final if France get through; he’s been booked for a sliding foul on Medina.
39 min “My stream is fine (and no, that has nothing to do with my prostate),” begins Joe Pearson, “and that yellow on Mateta was solely a result of play-acting by the Argentina player. Went down holding his face from an arm to the chest. Ugh.”
Fancy a job?
38 min France need to get Olise in the game more; they’ve really ceded the initiative in the last 10-15 minutes and an equaliser looks increasingly likely.
36 min: Great chance for Simeone! Superb play from Argentina. Medina is put through on the left of the area, then well challenged by a sliding defender. Medina improvises brilliantly, while lying on his back, to lob a cross towards Simeone, unmarked eight yards out. Simeone heads it miles over the bar.
36 min This is important 10 minutes for France. Argentina are the better team right now and an equaliser before half-time would change the mood significantly.
35 min Okay, now the stream is up to date. More importantly, Mateta has been booked for a foul that I didn’t see because the coverage just jumped forward three minutes.
31 min “As Justin Kavanagh points out, the remarkable thing about the Souness clip is how short the shorts were in those days,” says Kevin McKee. “It gave a player a lot of bare leg to aim at. These days most fouls seem to involve stamping on another player’s foot, which was hardly ever an offence in the Souness era, probably because footballer’s boots were made of thicker material and it didn’t hurt much. So, what’s worse, getting someone’s studs on the upper thigh or on the foot?”
That depends whether ‘upper thigh’ is a euphemism.
30 min Otamendi’s header from a corner is comfortably saved by Restes. I say ‘is’, it bloody happened four minutes ago! But Argentina are/were having their best spell of the game.
30 min For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, the stream is now 3-4 minutes behind the action. Sorry about this. It’ll be fine for the second half, once Egypt v Paraguay has finished and this game is on Eurosport 5. For now it’s only on the app, which is having a bad evening.
29 min It’s back, we’re back. It sounds like Restes made a decent save from Ezequiel Fernandez in our absence.
Edit: we’ve just seen it and it was a pretty good save, high to his left when Fernandez got hold of one from 25 yards.
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28 min Our stream of the match is down. Great stuff.
27 min “Peter Oh’s question about the Argentinians wearing extra shinpads won’t sit well with Los Angels With Dirty Faces, as some genius in your parish once dubbed them,” says Justin Kavanagh. “Never mind shin pads though, Graeme Souness was barely wearing shorts back in the day as he dished out his those reducers to end all reducers (and many careers).”
26 min Truffert’s cross is crucially cut out by the stretching Otamendi, with Mateta waiting behind him and goalside of the defender.
The resulting corner leads to a bit of a scramble before Bade’s volley ricochets behind for another.
23 min: Zenon misses a good chance! It came from a France free-kick, which was punched away by Rulli. Medina (I think) controlled the dropping ball deftly and flicked a terrific pass through to Zenon in the inside-left channel. He ran half the length of the field, a couple of defenders just behind him, but shot tamely wide from the edge of the area.
21 min Di Cesare is booked for fouling Lacazette. France look dangerous on the break, particularly down their left.
20 min: Good save by Rulli! It was definitely a save this time. Lacazette clipped an early pass into Mateta, who got away from Otamendi and sidefooted a shot that was pushed away by Rulli. Mateta looks unplayable at the moment.
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18 min: Good save by Rulli! Mateta storms down the right and clips an early cross towards Millot, charging into the box from midfield. The ball is fractionally behind Millot, who improvises cleverly to backheel a shot that is well blocked by Rulli.
In fact, replays show the shot was blocked by Otamendi just in front of the keeper Rulli.
16 min I had the France formation slightly wrong before the game. They are closer to 4-2-3-1, with Lacazette on the left and Olise behind Mateta.
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15 min Kone wins the ball stealthily and surges 40 yards before finding Lacazette on the left. He’s eventually crowded out but that was a terrific piece of play from Kone, the Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder.
15 min France are starting to sit a bit deeper. It’s human nature to do that when you score early, but it did feel like they had Argentina on the ropes.
11 min Argentina have a half-decent spell of possession before Alvarez’s reverse pass is cleared.
7 min France are playing at a cracking tempo and are all over Argentina right now.
Olise curled the corner to the near post, where Mateta got the run on Otamendi and flicked a majestic header across Rulli. He celebrated by hoofing the corner flag, and why not. That was a terrific header, and one of the more heartfelt celebrations we’ve seen at this Olympics.
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GOAL! France 1-0 Argentina (Mateta 5)
France take an early lead!
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4 min Olise morves elegantly down the right to win the first corner for France. From which…
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4 min “Hi Rob!” says Joe Pearson. “I, for one, would be very happy to see some scenes no one wants to see.”
3 min There’s a helluvan atmosphere in Bordeaux, evidenced by the shrill of disapproval when the referee waves play on after Olise goes over on the edge of the area.
1 min Peep peep! The match has just kicked off in Bordeaux. Apologies for the slightly messy coverage – there was a problem with the stream. But all’s well that ends well, right.
“Can you tell if the Argentina players, Enzo Fernandez in particular, are wearing extra large shin pads and thicker layers of ankle wrap today?” asks Peter Oh. “They might need them.”
That’s actually Ezequiel Fernandez in midfield, not Enzo, though I suppose there is scope for the most savage case of mistaken identity since Graeme Souness nobbled the wrong mullet on his Rangers debut.
Argentina, who were Olympic champions in 2004 and 2008, will complete a rare hat-trick if they win gold this year; they are already world and South American champions. Also, look at the strength of their 2008 team.
France have won gold once, in Los Angeles in 1984, when Daniel Xuereb’s goal sealed a 2-0 win over Brazil in the final.
Team news
Thierry Henry, who made nine changes for the final group game against New Zealand with France already through, restores eight of those players. The exception is Maghnes Akliouche; he misses out because Enzo Millot has recovered from injury. In other words this is the XI that started the competition for France.
Argentina make three changes from their 2-0 win over Ukraine. Joaquin Garcia, Bruno Amione and Kevin Zenon replace Gonzalo Lujan, Julio Soler Barreto and Luciano Gondou.
France (possible 4-3-1-2) Restes; Sildillia, Bade, Lukeba, Truffert; Millot, Kone, Chottard; Olise; Mateta, Lacazette.
Substitutes: Nkambadio, Akliouche, Kalimuendo, Doue, Locko, Magassa, Cherki.
Argentina (possible 4-4-2) Rulli; Garcia, Di Cesare, Otamendi, Amione; Zenon, Medina, Fernandez, Almada; Simeone, Alvarez.
Substitutes: Brey, Soler, Echeverri, Lujan, Hezze, Gondou, Beltran.
Referee Ilgiz Tantashev (Uzbekistan).
𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒃𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 ⚔️🫡
— French Team ⭐⭐ (@FrenchTeam) August 2, 2024
Our 11 warriors who start tonight’s Olympic quarter-final against Argentina 👊
🇫🇷🇦🇷 | #FRAARG | #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/DqWECF4oLG
📝🇦🇷 Our 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐗𝐈 to face France in the quarterfinals! 🇫🇷#ArgentinaNT pic.twitter.com/Kf3Z7ioyMG
— Selección Argentina in English (@AFASeleccionEN) August 2, 2024
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France won their group handsomely: three wins, seven goals scored, none conceded. Thierry Henry’s squad includes the brilliant Michael Olise and a couple of overage players who are familiar to Premier League followers: Alexandre Lacazette, once of Arsenal, and Jean-Philippe Mateta.
Argentina finished second in Group B after losing their opening game to Morocco, who romped into the semi-finals earlier today by belting the USA 4-0. Javier Mascherano’s squad includes Manchester City’s Julian Alvarez and the World Cup-winning defender Nicolas Otamendi, now 36.
Time to shine for France 🇫🇷✨#FRAARG | #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/x1qs85i5lv
— French Team ⭐⭐ (@FrenchTeam) August 2, 2024
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live, minute-by-minute coverage of the men’s quarter-final between France and Argentina. Olympic football matches rarely have an edge like this: the video of Argentina players singing racist songs after their Copa America victory last month has caused outrage in France.
Here’s more on the story from Daniel Boffey.
The Olympic men’s football quarter-final between France and Argentina has been described as personal to every French citizen by the striker Jean-Philippe Mateta after uproar over footage of Argentina players singing racist chants.
There have been tensions between the nations since the circulation of a video after last month’s Copa América final, in which Argentina’s squad are seen singing about French players with African heritage.
In the opening days of the Games in Paris, Argentina’s football and rugby sevens teams were roundly booed by fans and France and Argentina players have acknowledged the heightened emotions before Friday evening’s game in Bordeaux.
Mateta said the game had become a national talking point. He said: “Argentina are the last world champions, a team that always ends up in the final of the tournaments they play. With what happened recently, all the French are touched by it. We’ll see what happens in the quarter-finals.”
The French football federation filed a complaint last month with Fifa over “racist and discriminatory remarks” made by Argentina players. Similar chants had been sung by Argentina fans before France and Argentina met two years ago in the men’s World Cup final, which Argentina won.
Kick off 8pm BST, 9pm in Bordeaux. The winners will meet Egypt or Paraguay in Tuesday’s semi-final.
