All eyes will be on the French city of Lyon, Monday evening, where the host country’s Olympic team will play against its Egyptian counterpart in the semi-finals of the football competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The French team is looking to achieve its first gold medal since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. It faced the Egyptian team in that version of the Olympics and won 2-0. It was the last match between the two teams in the Olympics.
Egypt have already equalled their best previous record at the Olympics, finishing fourth at Amsterdam 1928 and Tokyo 1964, but a win over France would mean they would play for at least the silver medal.
Where does the danger to the Egyptian Olympic team come from?
The advantage the home side have is that Egypt went to penalties against Paraguay, which left the team with some physically exhausted players, especially since the Egyptian team’s main players did not rest throughout the tournament in addition to a difficult domestic season that is still ongoing at the time of writing.
France will be without Enzo Melo today, after the midfielder was sent off following a heated match against Argentina, with Magnus Akliuch expected to replace the suspended Stuttgart player, with Manu Kone and Joris Chautard partnering in midfield.
| Egypt | the number | France |
| 4 | Matches | 4 |
| 4 | goals scored | 8 |
| 9.09% | Convert shots into goals | 17.78% |
| 2 | clean sheet | 4 |
| 54.40% | Winning ratio of duels | 49.30% |
France’s strength lies in Crystal Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta, who is having a fantastic tournament, with his goals against New Zealand and the win over Argentina showing how much he has grown in the tournament, making him the man to lead the French attack.
With former Crystal Palace team-mate Michael Olise, who has joined Bayern Munich, behind him to support him, and veteran striker Alexandre Lacazette alongside him, Mateta will be part of a dangerous attacking trio.
Michael Olise, who comes from behind, is the player who has created the most goals in the tournament (3), the most big chances (3), and the second most chances overall in the tournament (12).
Loic Badie is the third over-age player, alongside Lacazette and Mateta, and the Sevilla defender will continue his impressive partnership at centre-back with RB Leipzig’s Castillo Lukeba as France look to extend their record of not conceding a goal throughout the tournament.
5 digital facts about the French national team
- The French team has the best defense line, and has not conceded any goals in the tournament. It is followed by the Egyptian Olympic team, which has conceded two goals.
- The French team is the team that made the most counterattack attempts at the Paris Olympics (9) and scored the most counterattacks (2).
- The French team is the team that scored the most headed goals at the Paris Olympics (3 goals), including Jean-Philippe Mateta’s decisive goal against Argentina.
- The French national team has scored the most corner kicks (2), equal with Spain.
- The most dangerous period for the French team was between the 61st and 75th minutes, when they scored 5 goals out of a total of 8 goals.
