{"id":16670,"date":"2024-08-05T06:38:41","date_gmt":"2024-08-05T06:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/?p=16670"},"modified":"2024-08-05T13:18:40","modified_gmt":"2024-08-05T13:18:40","slug":"france-dreaming-of-2nd-mens-football-gold-spain-face-morocco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/?p=16670","title":{"rendered":"France dreaming of 2nd men\u2019s football gold, Spain face Morocco"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Paris : Thierry Henry\u2019s France are targeting a place in the Olympic men\u2019s football gold medal match as they face Egypt in the semi-finals today, while Spain take on impressive Morocco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

France are dreaming of a second men\u2019s football gold \u2013 40 years after their first \u2013 on home soil and will be overwhelming favorites against the Egyptians in Lyon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henry\u2019s side did not concede a goal on their way to the semi-finals, going through the group stage with three wins from three before beating two-time Olympic champions Argentina 1-0 on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That match in Bordeaux was marred by clashes between opponents and full-time staff, but before that Jean-Philippe Mateta scored the decisive goal early on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henry later compared his side to the famous French men\u2019s handball team of the 1990s, which notably won an Olympic bronze medal and a world title and was nicknamed the \u201cNutters\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI call my players crazy, in a good way,\u201d said Henry, France\u2019s all-time great who won the World Cup and European Championship as a player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had the opportunity to play in many competitions. I\u2019m not saying I didn\u2019t enjoy what I was doing, but the Olympics are different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

France have failed to secure the services of superstar striker Kylian Mbappe but have a strong side in the games where men\u2019s football is reserved for under-23 players, with the exception of three senior players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every member of their starting line-up against Argentina, including captain Alexandre Lacazette and new Bayern Munich signing Michael Olis, played regularly in one of Europe\u2019s big five leagues last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henry has plenty of options and will need to find a replacement for Enzo Millot against Egypt after the Stuttgart midfielder was sent off late in the quarter-final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Midfielder Manu Kone is also suspended as France bid to reach the final at the Parc des Princes in Paris next Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Egypt are targeting a first Olympic football medal after surprisingly topping their group ahead of Spain before knocking out Paraguay in the round of 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Egypt is captained by former Arsenal midfielder Mohamed Elneny, who is coached by Brazil\u2019s Rogerio Micale \u2013 who led his native country to gold at Rio 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winner of the men\u2019s football gold will travel outside Latin America for the first time since 2000, and there is the possibility of an all-North African final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morocco were outstanding in reaching the semi-finals, topping their group ahead of Argentina and beating the United States 4-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They can fancy their chances in Marseille against Spain, who are hoping to win football gold for a second time after their senior national team triumphed at Euro 2024, 32 years after winning the Barcelona Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barcelona\u2019s Fermin Lopez was Spain\u2019s star player in a comfortable quarter-final win over Japan, with the midfielder, who has been part of the Euro campaign, scoring the brace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morocco have quality across Spain and they know Spain too \u2013 captain Achraf Hakimi and exciting winger Ilias Akhomach were born and raised there, while Abde Ezzalzouli moved to the country as a child and now plays in La Liga for Betis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe deserve to be in the semi-finals and if we keep playing like this we deserve to be in the final,\u201d said Akhomach, the 20-year-old Villarreal star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrance and Spain are better sounding names given what they\u2019ve done before. Morocco haven\u2019t won anything.\u201d It is true that other countries can be talked about more than us, but we know what we want. We came here to win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paris : Thierry Henry\u2019s France are targeting a place in the Olympic men\u2019s football gold medal match as they face Egypt in the semi-finals today, while Spain take on impressive… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":16671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[66,1384],"class_list":["post-16670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-fifa-international","tag-paris-olympics-2024"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16672,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16670\/revisions\/16672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}