Men’s Event
Kicking off prior to the Olympics, day one was marred by crowd trouble in Argentina vs Morocco. The game took two hours longer than expected to finish as VAR ruled out a late Argentina equaliser. On matchday two, Paraguay and Ukraine would beat Israel and Morocco respectively with stoppage time goals. France and Japan would take Group A and D with nine points. Surprises would happen in B and C as Argentina and Spain could only finish second. 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. France would beat Argentina in a fractious game 1-0. They would come 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 would also leave 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 🇲🇦
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
Amongst the drama of a spying scandal, Canada would win all three group games but were docked six points. United States and Spain would also win all three games top their groups. The second set of games was headlined by Australia coming back from 5-2 down to beat Zambia 6-5 with Japan scoring two goals in stoppage time to beat Brazil. The only quarter-final game that would not end in a draw saw Brazil get a late winner against France. Spain would come back from 2-0 down to beat Colombia on penalties. Germany beat Canada on penalties whilst the United States got an extra-time victory against Japan. United States would again need 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 would score hers and Ann-Katrin Berger would save one in stoppage time. The final was a tight affair and Mallory Swanson got the goal for a 1-0 victory.
🥇United States 🇺🇸
🥈Brazil 🇧🇷
🥉Germany 🇩🇪
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.
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