France v Argentina: Olympic Games men’s football quarter-final – live | Football
Key events
Team news
Thierry Henry, who made nine changes for the final group game against New Zealand with France already through, restores eight of those players. The exception is Maghnes Akliouche; he misses out because Enzo Millot has recovered from injury. In other words this is the XI that started the competition for France.
Argentina make three changes from their 2-0 win over Ukraine. Joaquin Garcia, Bruno Amione and Kevin Zenon replace Gonzalo Lujan, Julio Soler Barreto and Luciano Gondou.
France won their group handsomely: three wins, seven goals scored, none conceded. Thierry Henry’s squad includes the brilliant Michael Olise and a couple of overage players who are familiar to Premier League followers: Alexandre Lacazette, once of Arsenal, and Jean-Philippe Mateta.
Argentina finished second in Group B after losing their opening game to Morocco, who romped into the semi-finals earlier today by belting the USA 4-0. Javier Mascherano’s squad includes Manchester City’s Julian Alvarez and the World Cup-winning defender Nicolas Otamendi, now 36.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live, minute-by-minute coverage of the men’s quarter-final between France and Argentina. Olympic football matches rarely have an edge like this: the video of Argentina players singing racist songs after their Copa America victory last month has caused outrage in France.
Here’s more on the story from Daniel Boffey.
The Olympic men’s football quarter-final between France and Argentina has been described as personal to every French citizen by the striker Jean-Philippe Mateta after uproar over footage of Argentina players singing racist chants.
There have been tensions between the nations since the circulation of a video after last month’s Copa América final, in which Argentina’s squad are seen singing about French players with African heritage.
In the opening days of the Games in Paris, Argentina’s football and rugby sevens teams were roundly booed by fans and France and Argentina players have acknowledged the heightened emotions before Friday evening’s game in Bordeaux.
Mateta said the game had become a national talking point. He said: “Argentina are the last world champions, a team that always ends up in the final of the tournaments they play. With what happened recently, all the French are touched by it. We’ll see what happens in the quarter-finals.”
The French football federation filed a complaint last month with Fifa over “racist and discriminatory remarks” made by Argentina players. Similar chants had been sung by Argentina fans before France and Argentina met two years ago in the men’s World Cup final, which Argentina won.
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Kick off 8pm BST, 9pm in Bordeaux. The winners will meet Egypt or Paraguay in Tuesday’s semi-final.
