The Paris Olympics is not officially opened up until Friday evening but in order to get through the schedule some sports get started prior to the opening ceremony and one of those is football which starts out in France on Wednesday.
Brazil were the gold medallists the last time the Olympic tournament was played in Tokyo three years ago but such is their decline on the world stage they have not qualified for this competition so we are guaranteed a new winner.
Recent Winners
2020 – Brazil
2016 – Brazil
2012 – Mexico
2008 – Argentina
2004 – Argentina
2000 – Cameroon
1996 – Nigeria
The Rules
Each nation has named a squad of 18 players for the tournament. The tournament is for played aged 23 and under although each squad is allowed to name up to three players over that age.
The Stars
Although the tournament is restricted to players under-23 with the exception of three overaged players there are still some stars competing at this Olympics. Crystal Palace fans will be aware that Jean-Philippe Mateta and Michael Olise are in the hosts’ squad as is Alexandre Lacazette while other Premier League stars gracing the tournament include Julio Enciso, Julian Alvarez, who is having a busy summer after recently winning the Copa America, Mohamed Elneny and Sergio Gomez. Other star names include Lucas Beltran, Thiago Almada and Fermin Lopez.
The Format
16 teams have made it into the tournament through various means of qualification and they have now been put into four groups of four. Each side plays the other three in its group once with the top two at the end of that going into the quarter finals. The tournament becomes a straight knockout from there. If knockout matches finish level then extra time and penalties will be played to determine the winner. The gold medal match will be played out in Paris on August 9.
Group A
The host nation is always assigned with place A1 in the draw which means that France will be the headline act in what looks like a fairly strong group for this level of tournament. Thierry Henry will lead his side against a USA team who always take the Olympic tournament seriously and who have named a number of bright stars in their squad. Guinea came through the Africa qualifier and have picked a couple of overaged players so they are taking things seriously while New Zealand are fairly regular attendees to the Olympics.
Group B
This will be a high profile group as well because it has the best side in South America in it in the recent Copa America champions Argentina. Their assault on the gold medal will be spearheaded by Julian Alvarez and with Nicolas Otamendi their captain they are clearly taking it seriously. Morocco will look to build on a bright World Cup campaign in Qatar in this group and Achraf Hakimi in their squad they have a world star in their ranks. That might make it harder work for Ukraine and Iraq who are the two sides hoping to cause an upset somewhere.
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Group C
The silver medallists in Tokyo were Spain and the European champions at senior level will look to add another Olympic title to their honours board as the leading nation in Group C. The Spanish will be expected to cruise through Group C with Egypt the second most likely team to come out of the section but they often flatter to deceive in events away from their home conditions. That will give hope to Uzbekistan who will make their debut in the Olympics here. Dominican Republic are also debutants in this tournament.
Group D
It could well be that Group D turns out to be the best in the competition. Japan are the headline act in it and they will be looking to better their fourth placed finish on home soil three years ago and break into the medals. Paraguay have a couple of appealing players in their squad though so they look set to challenge the Japanese for top spot in the group. The other teams in this section are Mali and the most controversial of them all in Israel who are unlikely to get too much support in any sport in which their athletes compete at these games.
Outright Betting
The Olympic tournament is gaining in importance on the world stage with every time that it is held and it isn’t just the host nation who takes it seriously. A lot of the big countries in world football put a lot of effort into their programme to make sure that they are here so this should be a really good tournament, one which has a number of recognisable stars in it despite the two big continents having had their senior tournament already this summer.
We have a bit of a lopsided draw here as the winners of Group A and C end up on a collision course in the semi-final which means that France could face Spain while the other semi-final is seeded to be Argentina against Japan. I’m less sure that match will happen though because I think Paraguay could be the spoilers to the party. In qualifying for this tournament Paraguay met Argentina twice and drew on both occasions with Argentina needing injury time equalisers on both occasions. Paraguay also beat Brazil and their only defeat in the seven matches they played came when they had already qualified from the first group. Paraguay have added Julio Enciso and Fabian Balbuena to that squad and if they can win the group they could easily be playing for the medals later in the event. At 40/1 I think they are a big price.
Top Goalscorer
We have some really good attacking players on show in this tournament and there is one in particular that interests me in the top goalscorer market that Bet365 have priced up. I expect Spain to go well in this tournament, particularly in the goalscoring department and even though they are in line to meet France in the last four, we should remember that losing semi-finalists will play for the bronze medal so I expect a full complement of Spain matches for Fermin Lopez to take full advantage of.
Lopez was at Euro 2024 but only saw game time off the bench in one of the matches which wholesale changes were made, so he will probably be chomping at the bit to be involved here. He comes into the tournament having scored 11 goals for Barcelona in all competitions this season including five in his last seven La Liga matches, one of which was El Clasico. In a Spanish side that should be full of goals he feels a big price here.
Tips
Back Paraguay to win the gold medal for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Bet365
Back F.Lopez Top Goalscorer (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 15.00 with Bet365 (1/4 1-3)
