…Africa Sure of a Football Medal in the Bronze Battle.
….Morocco to Meet Egypt for Bronze on Thursday in Nantes. Hosts, France to tackle Spain for the Gold on Friday in Paris.
Africa’s two medal hopefuls in the Pars 2024 Men’s football the Atlas Lions of Morocco and Pharaohs of Egypt were painfully shoved aside after both teams scored first in their semifinal matches on Monday night.
Central Midfielder for Pyramids of Egypt scored the opening goal in the 62nd minute but Crystal Palace Boy, Jean-Philippe Matata got the equalizer in the 83rd minute at the Decines-Charpieu Stadium and got his brace (2nd goal in a match) when Kilian Sildillia provided an assist in the 99th minute of play in Extra Time which was a beautiful header.
Egypt was badly affected by an unnecessary red card to Omar Fayed in the 92nd minute which was his 2nd yellow card in the match. The Igwe of Arsenal Football, Thienry Henry who is the Coach of France grinned like a school boy plotting how the Egyptians will encounter their Red Sea on France territory.
Nigeria’s Michael Olise who has been working tirelessly for France got an assist from Desire Doue in a goal mouth error in the box of the Egyptians to score in the 108th minute for France first ever appearance in the Olympics Men’s Football.
And at Marseille, Soufiane Rahim of Morocco had gotten his 6th goal for the Atlas Lions in the 37th minute and is still the highest goal scorer at the Paris Olympics.
Fermin Lopez equalized for Spain at the 66th minute before giving a vital assist to Juanlo who sent the Lions to their Den 85th minute
Cover photo: The Spanish Team after spanking Atlas Lions of Morocco. Only the Mediterranean Sea separated Spain and Morocco.
Morocco had beaten Iraq 3-0; lost to Ukraine 1-2 and edged Argentina 2-1 in Group B before dismissing the Yankees of America 4-0 in the quarterfinal.
La Roja of Spain lost to African team, Egypt 1-2; beaten Dominican Republic 3-1 and also piped Uzbekistan 2-1 in group C before introducing virus into the Japanese High Tech team 3-0 in the quarterfinal.
Both Spain and Morocco met in the 2012 Olympics Group D match that ended goalless. Morocco is in her 8th appearance at the Olympics and she got into the semifinal this year. Spain is in her 6th appearance but won the title once while hosting in 1992 and had beaten Poland 3-2 at Camp Nou. She won the Silver twice in 1920 at Belgium and at Tokyo 2020 when she lost to the Samba Boys of Brazil 1-2 after Extra Time.
Morocco will meet fellow Africans Pharaohs of Egypt at Nantes on Thursday while hosts France will tackle Spain for the Gold medal at Paris on Friday.
The Nigerian U23 Team did not qualify for the Olympics Games final but the Nigerian women were sent home after the group games without a victory.
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