Paris 2024 Olympics: France beats Argentina to qualify for men’s football semifinal

Jean-Philippe Mateta scored the main objective as France won 1-0 in its battle with Argentina on Friday to arrive at the Olympic men's football elimination rounds, joining Spain, Morocco and Egypt in the last four.

Crystal Palace striker Mateta struck five minutes into the quarterfinal in Bordeaux, meeting Michael Olise's corner with a wonderful close post header.

That demonstrated enough for the host, trained by Thierry Henry, to arrive at the last four and remain in dispute to win gold in Paris next Friday, August 9.

It was the principal meeting of the countries since Argentina players were recorded singing bigoted serenades about their French partners as they commended winning the Copa America in mid-July.

FIFA declared it would examine the serenades, which designated France's star striker Kylian Mbappe among others and included bigot and homophobic affronts.

The Argentina group were met with an unfriendly welcome in Bordeaux, where the group noisily scoffed their public song of praise as the sides likewise met interestingly since the 2022 World Cup which the South Americans won on penalties

Strains likewise gushed out over at full-time with rival players and staff conflicting on the pitch and conflicts going on down the passage.

Henry said midfielder Enzo Millot, who had been subbed late on, was shown a red card after the last whistle.

"He wasn't on the pitch. Perhaps you get shipped off in light of the fact that you get a subsequent yellow card to stop somebody going through on objective, not when you are on the seat. I'm truly not cheerful about that," Henry told telecaster France 3.

Giuliano Simeone and Julian Alvarez botched opportunities for Javier Mascherano's Argentina, and the exit of the double cross gold medallist implies the victor of men's football gold won't come from Latin America interestingly since Cameroon prevailed in Sydney in 2000.

France might have won by a more extensive wiggle room, however Olise had a late second objective denied for a mess in the development.