France beat Argentina 1-0 in Bordeaux and reach the men’s soccer semifinals at the Olympics on Friday, August 2 2024, in a match where the Argentines were booed throughout by a hostile home crowd and fighting broke out between the players immediately after the final whistle.
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There was shoving for a couple of minutes before the players were broken up. Some France players appeared to sprint down the tunnel moments later before coming back out a short time later to perform a lap of honor.
Jean-Philippe Mateta headed home in the fifth minute for coach Thierry Henry’s team, which will face Egypt in the last four.
Mateta was celebrating with captain Alexandre Lacazette when they noticed the postmatch skirmish.
Lacazette rushed back to help break it up, as did Henry and counterpart Javier Mascherano, who appeared to block one of his own staff members from joining in.
“I went to shake the opposing coach’s hand and all of a sudden I saw a lot of things happening,” Henry told reporters. “I don’t like seeing this kind of thing. It wasn’t necessary.”
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As France fans continued celebrating, stewards and a handful of riot police formed a ring around the pocket of Argentina fans inside the stadium.
Amid the skirmishes, France midfielder Enzo Millot, who had earlier been substituted in stoppage time, was shown a red card that means he will miss the semifinal.
“We didn’t want to lose a player to suspension but it was pointless, he wasn’t even playing at the final whistle,” Henry said. “I’m really not happy about that. We were all united, the only drawback is getting a red on the bench.”
Although primarily an under-23 competition, the game was a rematch French fans have been waiting for since Argentina’s dramatic penalty shootout win in the 2022 World Cup final.
A racism scandal had heightened tensions ahead of the game after a video of Argentina players singing an offensive song about French players of African heritage as they celebrated their Copa América victory last month made the rounds.
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