In the men’s football tournament at the Olympics, Morocco pulled off a remarkable surprise in a wild manner. Co-favorite Argentina celebrated a supposed equalizer in the 16th minute of injury time – the supposed equalizer.
The redemption: Argentina celebrates the late equalizer against Morocco.
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Argentina, which has already won gold at the Olympics twice, in 2004 in Athens and in 2008 in Beijing, began at the Geoffroy Guichard Stadium in Saint Etienne with a lot of experience. Argentina’s coach Javier Mascherano, who had won Olympic gold twice as a player, relied on World Champion Otamendi, who at 36 years old formed the central element in defense. In goal and in attack, there were two more World Champions with Rulli and Alvarez. For Morocco, former Dortmund player Hakimi led the team onto the field as captain.
Two corners and a goal
At first, a tough match developed, with Morocco having slight advantages. Both teams got caught up in many duels, lacking structure in their forward play and failing to create dangerous opportunities in front of the opponent’s goal. The Moroccans recorded two corners, while the South Americans had nothing to show for it.
The match continued to meander until the first chance resulted in the first goal. Akhomach set up El Khannous with a backheel, and Rahimi used his sharp cross to make it 1-0 for Morocco.
The second half began with a bang. Akhomach was brought down in the penalty area, and Rahimi scored confidently from the spot, putting Argentina under pressure at 0-2. However, Mascherano’s team continued to play sluggishly, lacking ideas. Even after more than an hour, Argentina did not have a serious shot on goal.
Twice the crossbar and the late equalizer
Morocco defended cleverly and allowed nothing. Until the 68th minute, when a deep cross found Soler, whose shot from the left half of the penalty area was pushed into the goal by substitute Simeone at the right post. Argentina was back in the game, and substitute Bouchouari forced Morocco’s goalkeeper Munir into a great save with a header from close range (72nd minute).
Alvarez also failed to get the ball past the Moroccan keeper Munir when he was clean through (82nd minute). And in the long injury time, Amione had a chance to equalize. Ultimately, it was Medina who, after two shots hitting the crossbar, managed to head the ball into the net (90+16). The supposed equalizer, however, turned out not to be an equalizer at all.
Because fans stormed onto the field immediately afterward, the match was interrupted for almost two hours. After that, play resumed without spectators, but with a VAR check. The check showed that Medina’s equalizer was disallowed for offside. Then three more minutes were played before the final whistle sounded – and Morocco’s 2-1 opening coup was confirmed.