Olympic Football Final Build up
The hosts, France face Spain in the match to determine who will take home the gold medal at the Olympic football final on Friday afternoon. France have been on fire this tournament, they’ve won all five games so far and only conceded one goal in the process. Jean-Philippe Mateta has continued his goal scoring form since the end of the Premier League season. He’s found the back of the net four times this tournament and is joint second in the top goal-scoring ranking, behind Morocco’s Soufiane Rahimi, who has six goals. I think Mateta will grab another goal in the final against Spain so I’m going for Mateta to score anytime at 3.40.
Road to Gold
Spain have been consistent at the Olympics excluding an opening game loss to Egypt. Although they did qualify as group runners up with wins against Dominican Republic and Uzbekistan. The Spaniards have only kept a clean sheet once this tournament, which was in a 3-0 win against Japan in the quarter-finals.
Can Spain complete an impressive run of recent triumphs in major tournaments with a gold medal at the Paris Olympics? They would add to a list that includes the Men’s Euros, Nations League and U19s Euros and the Women World Cup, Nations League, U20 and U17 World Cup, and the U19 and U17s Euros.
France have had some tough matches this knockout stage including a nail biting match up against Argentina in the quarter-finals. A Bullet Header from a corner scored by Mateta which saw the hosts go in 1-0 at the break. Constant pressure from Argentina enabled them to create some good chances but a fierce rivalry took the game all the way to the wire with France narrowly winning 1-0.
Semi-Finals
The semi-finals saw Spain having to come from behind to beat Morocco 2-1. A late goal from Juanlu Lopez assisted by Barcelona youngster and one for the future, Fermin Lopez. He also helped his nation with their first goal in the game.
France also had late drama with an equaliser courtesy of a Mateta strike which took the game to extra time in a nervous display in front of goal for the hosts. Yet another goal from Mateta in the first half of extra time and to seal the victory and confirm a medal for his nation, an Olise goal. The game ended 3-1 but Egypt fought hard but in the end just didn’t have enough. Can the hosts France get their hands on gold in the Olympic football final?
