Egypt put up a brave fight for a long time in the semi-final of the Olympic soccer tournament against hosts France, but in the end ten Egyptians had to admit defeat to the favorites. Bayern newcomer Olise shines with two scoring points
French head coach Thierry Henry had to do without two key Bundesliga players after the heated 1-0 defeat to Argentina. Stuttgart’s Millot was shown the red card after the final whistle and was replaced by Akliouche, while Borussia Mönchengladbach’s Koné, who was under yellow card, made way for Diouf.
The Egyptians had made it no less exciting in their quarter-final duel, which they ultimately won 5-4 on penalties against Paraguay. Despite having over 120 minutes in their legs, Egypt coach Micale Rogerio made just one change, bringing on Karim El Debes for Ahmed Eid.
A lively start in Lyon
Whoever had expected a clear-cut victory for the hosts in Lyon was wrong early on. After less than 90 seconds, Egypt’s Ibrahim Adel took the first shot of the game, but narrowly missed the target.
As expected, the French then took control, but both an attempted volley from Truffert (5′) and a shot from Bayern new signing Olise (11′) came to nothing. Undeterred by the lack of precision, both teams continued to play forward and repeatedly looked for the direct route into the deep
Egypt shock the careless French
Although France had 46% less possession than the Egyptians at the break, it was the host nation’s side that produced some noteworthy attacking moves from then on. Olise tried a shot from the left in the 26th minute, Badé failed to hit the post after a corner, before Lukeba was also too imprecise moments later (40′).
After the restart, the French hardly gave their opponents any breathing space, winning a lot of possession in midfield and controlling the action almost at will. However, they were still unable to score and captain Lacazette also missed miserably from a few meters out in the 60th minute.
The inevitable happened: just two minutes after Lacazette’s miss, the ball landed at the feet of Mahmoud Saber on the opposite flank, who shot without hesitation and slotted home under the crossbar. The fact that France failed to reply directly in the person of Mateta (64′) and Akliouche (65′) was in keeping with the unfortunate overall picture of the French attacking department
Olise serves Mateta perfectly
After Lacazette hit the post in the 75th minute and Badé hit the crossbar immediately afterwards, it took a flash of inspiration from Olise, who saved it until the 83rd minute. Then, however, the new Munich player provided the incoming Mateta with an impressive through pass, which the ex-Mainzer finished off with a precise right-footed shot into the left-hand corner of the net.
Deep into stoppage time, which originally lasted six minutes, there were many signs that France would be awarded a penalty, but referee Said Martinez from Honduras ruled that Badé had committed an offensive foul after a minute-long VAR check. Meanwhile, the fact that Omar Fayed, who had allegedly committed the handball, was shown a yellow card for complaining during the review was to have repercussions.
France secure their place in the final in extra time
Only two minutes after the start of extra time, the injured central defender was forced to foul substitute Doué, which resulted in a yellow card. It was all the more bitter for the ten Egyptians from then on when Mateta scored a brace with his head in the 99th minute
Olise was responsible for the final decision shortly afterwards, crowning his eye-catching performance with an ice-cold low shot (109′) and even narrowly missing a brace ten minutes later. France will now face Spain, who beat Morocco 2-1, in Thursday’s final on Friday (6pm). For Egypt, bronze is already at stake on Thursday (5 p.m.)
