An early goal was enough for France to beat Argentina 1-0 and reach the men’s soccer semifinals at the Paris Olympics on Friday, in a match where the Argentines were booed throughout by a hostile home crowd in Bordeaux.
While primarily an under-23 competition, the game was a rematch French fans have been waiting for since Argentina’s dramatic penalty shootout win in the 2022 World Cup final. A racism scandal had heightened tensions ahead of the game, following a video of Argentina players singing an offensive song about French players of African heritage as they celebrated their Copa América victory last month.
Argentina’s national anthem was met with a chorus of jeers and whistles, and home fans booed Argentina’s players after the kickoff whenever they touched the ball.
It took France less than five minutes to ratchet up the atmosphere even further.
Jean-Philippe Mateta met Michael Olise‘s corner at the near post and headed past Argentina’s experienced goalkeeper Gerónimo Rulli to put the hosts in front.
Argentina recovered well from the early setback and should have gone into the half-time interval level. With a the goal gaping, Giuliano Simeone somehow headed high over the bar as the ball dropped to him invitingly inside the 6-yard box.
Thierry Henry’s France held firm in the second half and thought they had a second goal when Olise found the net with a deflected strike in the 84th minute. While the goal was ruled out after a VAR check for an earlier foul, France had enough to clinch the win and set up a semifinal meeting with Egypt.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, tempers flared up after the final whistle, with the two sets of players angrily confronting each other on the field as the benches emptied.
France won their only Olympic title in 1984, the year they also won the European Championship.
Egypt earlier defeated Paraguay 5-4 in a shootout to reach the last four. Ibrahim Adel converted the final penalty kick for Egypt after their goalkeeper Hamza Alaa saved from Marcelo Perez to seal the win after the teams had drawn 1-1 in regulation and failed to score in extra time
Also on Friday, Spain eased past Japan 3-0 to set up a semifinal clash with Morocco, who thrashed the United States 4-0.
A Fermín López double and an Abel Ruiz effort in the 86th minute sealed the win for La Roja, who three years ago beat Japan in the semifinals at the Tokyo Olympics.
Information from Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.