Egypt's gold medal hopes fade away after France defeat

by Austin Ditlhobolo

Tuesday Aug 06, 2024. 06:58

Egypt’s hopes of winning gold or silver in the Men’s Football Tournament at the Paris 2024 Olympics faded away after losing 3-1 to France in extra-time on Monday night.

The semi-final defeat at the Stade de Lyon means the Young Pharaohs will face their North African rivals, Morocco in a third-place off-match on Thursday as they battle for a bronze medal.

Tournament hosts France will square off with Spain in the final on Friday after the latter defeated Morocco 2-1 in Monday’s first semi-final encounter at the Stade de Marseille.

There were no goals in the first-half which saw Egypt and France create goalscoring opportunities without converting them, and the score was 0-0 during the half-time break.

The deadlock was finally broken 17 minutes into the second-half when Mahmoud Saber hit the back of the net to hand Egypt a 1-0 lead – stunning the French fans inside the stadium into silence.

However, France grabbed a late equalising goal through Jean-Philippe Mateta in the 83rd minute to ensure that the match ended in a 1-1 draw in regulation time and extra-time followed.

The Young Blues were the dominant side in extra-time as Mateta grabbed his brace in the 99th minute to hand France the lead before Michael Olise netted 108th minute to seal France’s 3-1 win.

Egypt 1 (Saber 62′)

France 3 (Mateta 83′, 99′, Olise 108′)

Egypt: Alaa, Saber (Kamal 98′), Fayed, Abdelmaguid, El Debes (Mazhar 90′); Elneny, Shehata (Saad 111′), Ahmed Koka; Zizo (Hamdy 111′), Ibrahim Adel (Tarek 93′), Osama Faisal (Atef 90′).

France: Restes, Sildillia, Badé, Lukeba, Truffert; Chotard, Diouf (Doue 76′), Akliouche (Magassa 119′), Olise, Lacazette (Kalimuendo 105′), Mateta (Cherki 118′).