Spain has triumphed over Morocco, advancing to the Olympic men’s football final. Read about the match highlights and what this means for the team.
Spain has made it to the Olympic men’s football final for a second time in a row. Their previous outing ended with them claiming silver after losing to Brazil in extra time, three years ago at Tokyo.
On Monday, Spain overturned their deficit against Morocco with a late winning strike from Juanlu Sanchez to secure a 2-1 victory and advance to the final of the men’s Olympic football tournament.
Towards the end of the first half at Stade Velodrome in Marseille, Morocco had taken a lead with Soufiane Rahimi penalty.
Midway through the second period, Fermin Lopez of Barcelona managed to equalize and then assisted Sanchez from Sevilla in scoring the winning goal.
Spain has reached the final of men’s Olympic football for two consecutive times. In Tokyo three years ago, they were unable to clinch gold and settled for silver after being defeated by Brazil in extra time.
Spain, aiming for their second gold medal since winning in Barcelona 1992, will compete in the final on Friday against either France or Egypt. The latter two teams are scheduled to play their semifinal match later.
If Morocco wins the bronze medal match in Nantes on Thursday, they will be able to secure their first medal.
The previous champions of the Under-23 Africa Cup of Nations, who had excelled in reaching the semi-finals, appeared poised to astound Spain. In fact, they took a lead in the 37th minute thanks to their high-scoring player Rahimi.
After a VAR review found that Pablo Barrios committed a foul on Amir Richardson in the penalty box, Morocco was granted penalty kick. Rahimi confidently converted it by deceiving the goalkeeper with his shot direction.
The tournament’s top scorer scored his sixth goal at the Olympics, out of which four were penalties.
The enormous backing of Morocco went berserk after that, but Spain maintained their composure and leveled the score thanks to their own standout player in the 66th minute.
Lopez, who was part of Spain’s victorious team at Euro 2024 and scored two goals in the Olympic quarter-final against Japan, took advantage of a loose ball in the box to seize possession and shoot low into the net for an equalizer.
With the possibility of overtime impending, Spain secured their victory in the 85th minute when Lopez spotted Sanchez making his way towards the area. Sanchez then fired a shot into the far corner with precision and power.
AFP
