France knock out Argentina to seal Olympics semi final spot | OneFootball

The 2024 Olympic Games jump up a notch on Friday as the men's football quarter final ties take place in France.

Here's how it all went down.

France knock out Argentina to keep home dreams alive

Scorers: Mateta 5'

France booked a semi final date with Egypt after a tense and dramatic 1-0 victory against Argentina, which came in large part due to a brilliant defensive performance from Thierry Henry's side.

Inside a raucous Stade de Bordeaux, Les Bleus took the early lead and it came via an old Crystal Palace connection, Michael Olise's corner was met with a brilliant header from his former club teammate, Jean-Phillippe Mateta.

Argentina struggled to get into their rhythm as the hosts continued their rapid-quick start to the delight of their fans.

Mateta almost turned provider just before the 20 minute mark, putting the ball into the box, but the Argentines just scrambled it away.

Javier Mascherano's side's first look at goal came via Kevin Zenón, whose left-footed shot dribbled wide from the right-hand side of the box.

Giuliano Simeone missed an incredible chance to level things up in the 35th minute, firing a header miles over after the ball came to him unmarked at the back post.

Argentina's play steadily improved as the half closed out but France were rather content to counter, with Olise, unsurprisingly, being their best outlet.

Early into the second half, Manu Koné drove into the Argentinian half, finding Joris Chotard, who lost the ball with a slack touch.

Argentina continued to dominate the ball, but found themselves struggling to break through the French wall of defence.

Olise thought he had doubled France's lead with less than 10 minutes to go, turning in the box and firing home with the aid of a deflection. The goal led to manager Thierry Henry sprinting down the touchline and joining his side in their celebrations.

However, Maghnes Akliouche was adjudged to have committed a foul in the build-up after a lengthy VAR check, which drew boos from the home crowd.

Argentina kept the pressure on as the game went into 10 minutes of injury time but the French rearguard was proving near-impenetrable. Even when they did get a chance, Luciano Godou blazed over like Simeone in the first half.

France held out to knock out the World Champions and keep their dreams of a home victory alive.

Egypt into semi final after dramatic shootout win

Scorers: Adel 87'; Gómez 71'

Egypt defeated Paraguay 5-4 on penalties after a marathon 120 minute match, which sees them into the Olympics semi finals for the first time in 60 years.

The opening 10 minutes were unsurprisingly cagey with neither side dominating the ball.

Egypt, who entered the game in buoyant mood after their shock victory over Spain, struggled to build on that, with Paraguay's pressing preventing them from settling into any type of rhythm.

They suffered a scare when captain Mohamed Elneny went down and required treatment, but the former Arsenal player soldiered on.

Diego Gómez warmed the palms of Egyptian keeper Hamza Alaa with a tame free kick on the half hour, before the Pharoahs showed their threat on the counter.

Marcelo Pérez had the final chance of a very tight first half, but went too wide before shooting at the end of Paraguay had a counter-attack of their own.

Egypt almost grabbed the opener almost right after the break with Zizo's low cross being snuffed out just before Ibrahim Adel could get to it.

Shortly after, Pérez had another decent chance to give his side the lead after getting in on goal courtesy of a lovely through ball and some slack Egyptian defending. However, Alaa did well to deny him.

From another counter after dispossessing Paraguay in their own half, Osama Faisal hit a strong shot from the edge of the box, which was tipped around the post by Gatito Fernández.

Parguay broke the deadlock with just under 20 minutes to go via their captain, Diego Gómez. It was a brilliant hooked through ball from Brighton's Julio Enciso that led to the chance, and Gómez buried it from inside the box.

Enciso then went off with an injury, which only comes a week after he made his full return from over six months out.

Just as Paraguay thought they were inching towards a victory, Egypt's star man Ibrahim Adel grabbed an equaliser with three minutes left, nodding home from close range to force extra time.

Egypt had a weak penalty shout ruled out by the referee, that really shouldn't have been looked at intensely by VAR.

Extra time lagged on as both sides looked exhausted, with the game being slowed down with cramp and substitutions, as it was left to penalties to settle things.

Egypt won the shootout 5-4, with Hamza Alaa proving the hero with a save from Parguay's Marcelo Pérez.

Japan knocked out by Spain

Scorers: Fermin 11', 73', Ruiz 86'

Spain joined Morocco in the last four of the Olympic games after sweeping aside Japan 3-0 in Lyon.

La Roja, who are already European champions at senior level, took just 11 minutes to find the lead against Japan when Barcelona youngster Fermin Lopez rifled home from distance.

It came in the midst of a comfortable first half for the Spanish, with Japan failing to register a shot in the opening…. And looking easily second best to their opponents.

That changed after the cooling break, with Japan looking far stronger than they had to date, and they were massively unfortunate to see an equaliser chalked off for a nominal offside in the build up just before the interval.

They were unlucky once more in first half stoppage time when Mao Hosoya headed the ball against the post from a free kick, with Spain fortunate to head into the break in the lead.

Things improved for them at the beginning of the second half, but Japan once again grew into proceedings and only some poor choices in the final third and last-ditch defending prevented them from levelling the game.

At the other end, Juan Miranda’s free kick forced Kokubo into a diving save. From the resulting corner though, Fermin Lopez doubled his tally, thumping home a fantastic dipping effort on the half volley to leave Spain on the verge of heading through.

Japan pushed on to try and get back into the game, with Arnaud Tenas preventing them from pulling one back in the dying stages courtesy of an excellent diving stop.

And Spain inflicted further damage in the final minutes as Abel Ruiz tapped home after the ball broke to him from a set piece, before moments later Japan saw an effort of their own thunder off the crossbar.

Morocco thrash USA

Scorers: Rahimi 28' (Pen), Akhomach 58', Hakimi 70', El Mehdi Maouboub 90+1' (Pen)

Morocco advanced to the semi-finals of the 2024 Olympic games after brushing aside a lacklustre USMNT at the Parc des Princes to book their spot in the last four.

The Atlas Lions began the game on the front foot, with the USA struggling to get the ball off their opponents and offering nothing with it on the rare occasion that they did.

They were unlucky in the manner in which they fell behind though, with a coming together between two Moroccan players and Nathan Harriel was deemed a penalty onfield, before VAR confirmed the decision, allowing Soufiane Rahimi to score his fifth goal of the Olympic games.

The goal did little to spark life into the game, and the USA failed to have a shot on target on the first half, finishing with just one effort on goal across the first 45 minutes.

The US began the second half more brightly, and registered two quick shots on target without really testing Munir in the Moroccan goal.

But on the hour mark they looked on the verge of an exit from the competition when great work on the left wing ended with young winger Ilias Akhomach sliding the ball home from close range.

That exit was all but confirmed with 10 minutes later when Achraf Hakimi poked home a nicely worked move to send Morocco's travelling support into raptures and their nation into the last four.

There was still time for things to get worse for the USMNT as a stoppage time handball awarded Morocco a second penalty, which substitute El Mehdi Maouboub dutifully tucked away to cap off a superb performance for the Atlas Lions which sees them meet Spain in the semi-final.

Still to come...