Morocco & Egypt qualify for Olympic football semi-finals
Africa will have at least one medallist in the men’s Olympic football tournament after Egypt and Morocco both reached the last four.
Morocco began the double success with a comprehensive 4-0 victory over the USA at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris.
Soufiane Rahimi’s first-half penalty – his fifth strike of the competition – gave the Atlas Lions a narrow lead at half-time. But in a comfortable second period, Ilias Akhomach, captain Achraf Hakimi and another penalty scored by Mehdi Maouhoub wrapped things up in style.
In a repeat of the World Cup last-16 tie from Qatar 2022, Morocco now face Spain in Marseille on Monday (16:00 GMT) for a place in the final. After the match, Hakimi praised the strong Moroccan support which has backed the team in France.
“Fans have been following us all tournament,” said the defender who plays his club football in the Parc des Princes for Paris St Germain. “I hope they can follow us all the way to the final. We want to make them proud.”
Egypt’s route to the semi-finals was nowhere near as simple, with the Pharaohs needing penalties to sneak past Paraguay in Bordeaux.
Having fallen behind to a Diego Gomez goal after 71 minutes, they also needed an 88th-minute equaliser from Ibrahim Adel to take the tie into extra-time.
With no further goals scored, Adel was the hero once again in the shootout, finding the bottom corner with the 10th and decisive penalty after Egypt goalkeeper Hamza Alaa had saved from Marcelo Perez.
Egypt’s reward is a semi-final against hosts France in Lyon on Monday (20:00 GMT).
Source: BBC
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