Today's Olympic men's football semi-final: The 'war' between Europe and Africa, exciting and unpredictable

The finale of men's football at the 2024 Olympics is witnessing interesting scenarios, with the competition between representatives from Europe and Africa.

At this point, it can be seen that the Brazilian Olympic team (the champion of men's football in the last 2 Olympics) cannot compete in Paris as a "bad omen" for South American football. In the last 5 Olympics, the two strongest football nations in the world , Europe and South America, have always had representatives appearing in the semi-finals of men's football. However, the round for the 4 strongest teams of the men's football in the 2024 Paris Olympics is empty of South American representatives. Strong names such as Olympic Argentina and Olympic Paraguay have both stopped in the quarter-finals.

*Soufiane Rahimi (9) scored in all matches of the Moroccan Olympic team at Paris 2024*

The semi-finals are a "war" between Europe and Africa, when the French Olympic team meets the Egyptian Olympic team, and the Spanish Olympic team faces the Moroccan Olympic team. The two European teams are rated higher in their ability to win tickets to the final. However, the African representatives with what they have shown are also expected to create a surprise. If Morocco and Egypt both win, this will be the first time in the history of men's football at the Olympics that two African teams have met. The host of the Olympics, France, has suddenly become a strong candidate for the championship, with a comprehensive attack and defense. Coach Thierry Henry's team scored the most goals after the group stage, and is also the only team to make it to the semi-finals without conceding a single goal. Meanwhile, Egypt has reached the Olympic semi-finals for the third time and is determined to win its first gold medal. The only previous meeting at the Olympics between France and Egypt was in the quarter-finals in 1984. At that time, France won 2-0. The Spanish Olympic team is aiming to reach the final for the second consecutive time, after finishing second at Tokyo 2020 (losing to Brazil). This is the second time "La Roja" has faced an African team in the Olympic semi-finals. In Barcelona 1992, the Spanish team defeated Ghana 2-0 on the way to winning the gold medal at home. Spain has a young and extremely high-quality squad, but is expected to face difficulties against the strong Moroccan boys. This is the 8th time Morocco has participated in the men's football event at the Olympics, and the first time the team has reached the semi-finals. The most formidable factor of the representative from Africa is Soufiane Rahimi, the striker who has scored in all of Morocco's matches at Paris 2024 so far and is leading the list of top scorers with 5 goals. The striker born in 1996 is facing the opportunity to become the first player to score in 5 consecutive matches at the Olympics for an African team. Meanwhile, the semi-finals of the women's football at the 2024 Paris Olympics are fateful rematches, when Brazil meets Spain, and the US faces Germany. Previously in the group stage (Group B), the US women's Olympic team won 4-1 against Germany. In Group C, Spain defeated Brazil 2-0. However, in a completely different knockout match, the opportunity to get a ticket to the final is still divided equally among the teams.

Semi-final schedule

Men: France - Egypt (11pm, August 5) , Spain - Morocco (2am, August 6) Women: Brazil - Spain (11pm, August 6) , USA - Germany (2am, August 7)

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