Argentina, Morocco through to men’s Olympic football knockouts

Two-time gold medallists Argentina joined Morocco and Egypt in securing their places in the quarter-finals of the men’s Olympic football on the final day of the group stage on Tuesday.

All four sides in Group B were tied on three points going into the last matches, but Javier Mascherano’s Argentina qualified by beating Ukraine 2-0 in Lyon while Morocco eased through with a 3-0 victory against Iraq in Nice.

Morocco, winners of last year’s Under-23 Africa Cup of Nations, finish with the same number of goals scored and conceded as Argentina but go through as group winners because of their superior head-to-head record.

Morocco beat Argentina 2-1 in their opening game, but only after a last-gasp equaliser for the South Americans was disallowed after a VAR review and the final minutes of the game were completed in an empty stadium following crowd trouble.

Bilal El Khannouss of Morocco, Abde Ezzalzouli of Morocco, Oussama El Azzouzi of Morocco and Yassine Kechta of Morocco celebrate after the match.PHOTO: REUTERS
Morocco will play a quarter-final tie on Friday in Paris against the runners-up in Group A, while the winners of that section will face Argentina in Bordeaux.

Group A will be completed later Tuesday with France needing just a point against New Zealand to secure top spot.

The United States and Guinea are also in Group A, but there is now the possibility of a showdown between Thierry Henry’s French side and Argentina — two of the leading contenders — in the last eight.

Thiago Almada’s superb strike gave Argentina the lead against Ukraine just after half-time and substitute Claudio Echeverri sealed their victory late on, following in to score after a Kevin Zenon shot was parried.

Morocco made short work of Iraq with all their goals coming in the first half.

Amir Richardson, son of former NBA star Michael Ray Richardson, headed Morocco in front and Soufiane Rahimi made it 2-0 from close range just before the half-hour mark for his fourth goal at the tournament.

The third goal, in the 37th minute, was a tremendous strike by Abde Ezzalzouli, who came in from the left and smashed a shot into the far top corner.

Earlier, Egypt reached the quarter-finals with a surprise 2-1 win over already-qualified Spain, with Ibrahim Adel scoring both goals.

Adel gave Egypt the lead in Bordeaux with a superb strike late in the first half and added another on 62 minutes, pouncing to score after possession was given away by Spain’s Jon Pacheco.

Samu Omorodion pulled one back late on for Spain, but Egypt held on for the win that allowed them to leapfrog their opponents and snatch first place in Group C.

Egypt, captained by former Arsenal midfielder Mohamed Elneny, will play their quarter-final on Friday in Marseille against the runners-up in Group D, which contains Japan, Paraguay, Mali and Israel.

Egypt lost in the quarter-finals three years ago to Brazil, who went on to beat Spain in the final.

Spain’s last-eight tie will be in Lyon against the winners of Group D.