France set up a potentially explosive quarter-final showdown with Argentina in the men’s Olympic football tournament after beating New Zealand 3-0 in their final group game on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Argentina had sealed their last-eight spot earlier in the day and France joined them in the knockout phase with Jean-Philippe Mateta, Desire Doue and Arnaud Kalimuendo scoring for the hosts against New Zealand in Marseille.<\/p>\n
France finish on top of Group A with three wins out of three and no goals conceded, with the United States going through as runners-up after seeing off Guinea 3-0, Kevin Paredes scoring twice.<\/p>\n
That means Thierry Henry’s French side will take on Argentina in Bordeaux on Friday after the South Americans, two-time gold medallists, went through in second place in Group B thanks to a 2-0 win over Ukraine in Lyon.<\/p>\n
Thiago Almada’s superb strike gave Argentina the lead just after half-time and substitute Claudio Echeverri sealed their victory late on.<\/p>\n
It will be the first meeting of the nations since Argentina players were recorded singing racist chants about French players as they celebrated winning the Copa America earlier this month.<\/p>\n
FIFA has announced an investigation into the chants, which targeted France’s star striker Kylian Mbappe among others and included racist and homophobic insults.<\/p>\n
Argentina players have already been booed by rival fans at the Olympic tournament.<\/p>\n
The nations last met in the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar which Argentina won on penalties after a 3-3 draw.<\/p>\n
However, the men’s Olympic football tournament is an under-23 competition, with the exception of up to three over-age players per squad. Only two members of Argentina’s Olympic squad, Nicolas Otamendi and Julian Alvarez, played in the 2022 game, and none of France’s.<\/p>\n
Argentina will only face France after missing out on first place in Group B to Morocco on head to head.<\/p>\n
Morocco beat Iraq 3-0 in Nice in their last group game thanks to goals by Amir Richardson \u2013 the son of former NBA star Michael Ray Richardson \u2013 Soufiane Rahimi’s fourth of the tournament and a stunning hit from Abde Ezzalzouli, all in the first half.<\/p>\n
Morocco and Argentina finished level on six points, and tied on goals scored and goals conceded, but Morocco won 2-1 when the sides met in their opening game.<\/p>\n
That was only because a last-gasp equaliser for the South Americans was disallowed after a VAR review before the final minutes of the game were completed in an empty stadium following crowd trouble.<\/p>\n
Morocco will play their quarter-final tie on Friday in Paris against the USA.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Egypt reached the quarter-finals with a surprise 2-1 win over already-qualified Spain, with Ibrahim Adel scoring both goals.<\/p>\n
Adel gave Egypt the lead in Bordeaux with a great strike late in the first half and added another on 62 minutes.<\/p>\n
Samu Omorodion pulled one back late on for Spain, but Egypt held on for the win that allowed them to leapfrog their opponents and snatch first place in Group C.<\/p>\n
Egypt, captained by former Arsenal midfielder Mohamed Elneny, will play their quarter-final in Marseille against Paraguay, who beat Mali 1-0 in Paris with a fine Marcelo Fernandez effort to finish second in Group D.<\/p>\n
Tokyo silver medallists Spain will therefore play Japan, who secured top spot in Group D with a 100 percent record by beating Israel 1-0 in Nantes, Mao Hosoya scoring in stoppage time.<\/p>\n
Tuesday’s other game was a 1-1 draw between the Dominican Republic and Uzbekistan, both of whom were eliminated from Group C.<\/p>\n
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