Missing competitive football? Less than two weeks since Spain won the Euro 2024 final in Berlin the men’s and women’s teams are about to kick-off their campaigns for Olympic gold.
The two competitions commence before the official opening ceremony is held with glitz, glamour and pageantry in Paris on Friday and it is no surprise Spain are the favourites to be crowned women’s champions after their World Cup success in Australia last year, when they beat England 1-0 in a rather lopsided final in Sydney.
There’s no reason why they can’t prevail again despite the fact no nation has ever held the Olympic and World Cup titles at the same time.
There’s a new coach at the helm with the controversial Jorge Vilda replaced by Montse Tome and Spain’s squad includes Fifa World player of the year and Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmati as well as Alexia Putellas and Salma Paralluelo, who made a huge contribution to that success last year.
Former Chelsea manager Emma Hayes hopes to rekindle the United States flagging reputation in the women’s game by leading them into medal contention.
The USA have won gold on four occasions but started to lose their aura in the 2016 Rio Olympics when they were beaten on penalties by Sweden in the quarter-finals before being defeated by eventual winners Canada in the semi-finals in Tokyo last time around.
While the best players in the world grace the women’s tournament, the men’s competition is for Under-23s with four over age players allowed.
South American teams have dominated for the past two decades with Argentina and Brazil winning two golds each after Nigeria and Cameroon were victorious in 1996 and 2000 respectively.
Hosts France are managed by Thierry Henry, who has selected veteran Alexandre Lacazette to spearhead his attack after he hit 22 goals for Ligue 1 Lyon last season, and Spain could feature in the later stages of the knockout rounds.
But preference goes to Argentina, who have Manchester City striker Julian Alvarez to bang in the goals with former City central defender Nicolas Otamendi marshalling their defence, and both featured heavily in the 2022 World Cup triumph in Qatar and this summer’s Copa America triumph in the United States.
Spain are 21/10 with SpreadEx to win women’s gold while Argentina are 3/1 to triumph in the men’s competition with bet365, while Alvarez is 7/1 with the latter to win the Golden Boot.
• Joe Joyce tries to rekindle the last flickering embers of his chances to become a world heavyweight champion when he faces Derek Chisora at the O2 in London on Saturday. Successive defeats to Zhilei Zhang and a far from convincing victory over Kash Ali have derailed The Juggernaut’s progress while Del Boy is definitely in the twilight of a solid career.
It could all boil down to who possesses the greater desire, making Chisora the value to produce a shock while winning a sixth straight fight at his favourite venue at 18/5 with Betfred.
• There’s a huge night of greyhound racing on Saturday with three category A finals being staged at Hove and Oxford. The seaside track could see a bit of an upset with Romeo Command pinching an early lead on the rails to hold on and beat hot favourite Droopys Clue at 15/8 with Paddy Power and Betfair while Cooladerry Dust can make all over six bends in the Regency to triumph at 2/1 with BoyleSports. Aero Sacundai is 4/5 with bet365 and StarSports to win the Pall Mall at Oxford.
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