World
Paris Olympics: Crowd jeers Argentina during France quarterfinal
It comes after a racism scandal involving Argentinian players singing an offensive song about French players of African heritage. Friday’s game ended with a massive brawl after the final whistle.
France knocked out world and pan-American football champions Argentina after winning 1-0 in Bordeaux on Friday, in a heated game that ended with a massive brawl that followed more than ten minutes of stoppage time.
Argentina players were roundly jeered when they entered the field to face France in the Paris Olympics football quarterfinal on Friday.
The first few Argentina players came onto the field at Bordeaux Stadium to booing around 8:10 pm, almost an hour before kickoff. The stadium music system then drowned out much of the jeering.
Argentina’s national anthem was also met with a chorus of jeers and whistles, and home fans booed Argentina’s players after the kickoff when they touched the ball.
A racism scandal had heated the run-up to the game, following a video of Argentina players singing an offensive song about French players of African heritage as they celebrated their Copa America victory last month.
France’s single early goal by Crystal Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta was enough to book a place in the semifinals against Egypt.
The other semifinal is Spain-Morocco. Both take place on August 5.
Argentinian teams jeered multiple times since setting foot in Paris
Earlier Friday, Argentina’s handball team was jeered as it entered the South Paris Arena arena, but the booing subsided quickly at the venue.
Last week, Argentina’s men’s rugby sevens players were raucously and constantly booed by a Stade de France crowd of 69,000 during a quarterfinal against the home team.
Despite the off-field tensions leading into this football quarterfinal, security measures were not increased and the local police prefecture said security forces stuck to the initial plan.
Over 400 police and gendarmerie officers were deployed on for the match, in addition to 100 military personnel, and security forces used drones to help make the event safe.
France stay on course for second football gold at Olympics
The atmosphere outside the stadium was anything but tense, however. Fans of both nations mingled with each other without any signs of hostility, some with Argentina flags or jerseys with football superstar Lionel Messi’s name on the back.
The match itself was a rematch French fans have been waiting for since Argentina’s dramatic penalty shootout win in the 2022 World Cup final. But because it’s primarily an Under-23 tournament, superstars like Messi and Kylian Mbappé were not playing.
France won its only Olympic title in 1984 — the year it also won the European Championship — while Argentina won it back-to-back in 2004, with current coach Javier Mascherano in the side, and in 2008, with Mascherano and Messi.
Alcaraz and Djokovic to clash for men’s singles tennis Olympic gold, Marchand continues dominating run in swimming
In other news, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz will face Serbia’s Novak Djokovic this Sunday, after they respectively knocked out Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime and Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti.
The squad of the Neutral Athletes won their first gold medal thanks to Belarusian athlete Ivan Litvinovich, who defended his Olympic title in men’s trampoline. Earlier in the day, Belarus’ Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya won the team’s first medal at Paris 2024, a silver, in the same category.
In swimming, Léon Marchand completed a dominating run by claiming his fourth gold, this time in the 200-meter individual medley.
In rowing, Dutch athlete Marloes Oldenburg celebrated winning the gold medal in women’s four class, two years after undergoing life-threatening back surgery following a nasty bicycle accident.
“Amazing,” Oldenburg said. “For everybody who needs a little bit of inspiration, it’s possible to break your neck and get the Olympic gold”, she said after the race.