Football 2024 Paris Olympics Review

Men’s Event 

Kicking off prior to the Olympics, day one was marred by crowd trouble during Argentina vs Morocco. The match took two hours longer than expected as VAR ruled out a late Argentina equaliser. On matchday two, Paraguay and Ukraine beat Israel and Morocco respectively with stoppage time goals. France and Japan topped Group A and D with nine points, while surprises happened in B and C as Argentina and Spain could only finish second. In the knockout stage, Spain would beat Japan 3-0 whilst Morocco beat the United States 4-0. A closer tie would occur as Egypt beat Paraguay on penalties and France beat Argentina in a fractious game 1-0. They came from behind against Egypt having gone 1-0 down. A red card for Egypt in extra time would change the game and France would win 3-1. Spain also left it late against Morocco, coming from behind. Morocco would seal bronze with an emphatic 6-0 win against Egypt. There were also lots of goals in the gold medal matchup. Spain went 3-1 up in the first half hour only for two French goals in the last 15 minutes to send it to extra time. Sergio Camello would score twice in extra time to take a 5-3 win. 

🥇Spain 🇪🇸

🥈France 🇫🇷

🥉Morocco 🇲🇦

Prediction analysis; 1 medalist correct, 1 perfect prediction 

Of the five teams, I really referenced as contenders, the medals came from that three. The way the groups played out did not help my predictions. 

Women’s Event

Amidst the drama of a spying scandal, Canada dominated the group, winning all three games - only to be docked six points. The United States and Spain also won all three games to top their groups. The second round of groups games provided chaos. Australia came back from 5-2 down, to defeat Zambia 6-5, while Japan scored two goals in stoppage time to beat Brazil. All the quarter-final games went to extra time aside from Brazil defeating France with a late winner. Spain came from 2-0 down to defeat Colombia on penalties. Germany also beat Canada on penalties while the United States got an extra-time victory against Japan. In the semis, the United States again needed extra time to progress, beating Germany 1-0. Despite having less than 25% possession, Brazil beat Spain 4-2. In the third-place play-off, it was the story of penalties. Giulia Gwinn (Germany) scored on and Ann-Katrin Berger (Germany) saved one in stoppage time. The final was a tight affair and Mallory Swanson (United States) got the goal for a 1-0 victory. 

🥇United States 🇺🇸

🥈Brazil 🇧🇷

🥉Germany 🇩🇪

Prediction analysis; 1 medalist correct

Spain did look like all the football finally caught up with them, going out earlier than expected. The United States got the victory without overly impressing.