Football at 2024 Summer Olympics: A Look at the Group Stage Draws
The next edition of the Olympics is just around the corner, and as always football promises to be a thrilling spectacle for fans all over the world. This edition of the Summer Olympics is scheduled to be played from July 24 to August 10, 2024. It will be played across 7 cities in France, namely Paris, Bordeaux, Décines-Charpieu, Marseille, Nantes, Nice, and Saint-Étienne.
In this edition, two events are scheduled to be contested in football: men’s and women’s tournaments. The men’s tournament will feature sixteen teams and the women’s tournament will comprise 12 teams. The teams will be divided into four groups and three groups for the men’s tournament and women’s tournament respectively and the top two teams from each group will advance to the knockout stages which will eventually culminate in the gold medal match at the iconic Parc des Princes in Paris.
However, the dates for the medal matches differ for the men’s and women’s tournaments. August 9 and August 10 have been chosen as the dates for the gold medal match for men’s and women’s tournaments respectively. On the other hand, August 8 and August 9 are selected for the bronze medal match for the men’s and women’s tournaments respectively.
The draws for the tournaments were announced earlier on March 20, 2024, and teams were allotted to their respective groups in the following manner.
For the men’s tournaments group stage –
- Group A: France, United States, Guinea and New Zealand
- Group B: Argentina, Morocco, Ukraine and Iraq
- Group C: Uzbekistan, Spain, Egypt and the Dominican Republic
- Group D: Japan, Paraguay, Mali and Israel
For the women’s tournaments group stage –
- Group A: France, Columbia, Canada and New Zealand
- Group B: United States, Zambia, Germany and Australia
- Group C: Spain, Japan, Nigeria and Brazil
Football at the 2024 Summer Olympics: Defending champions Brazil miss out on Paris spot
In the women’s tournament, all eyes will be on Spain, USA, Canada and Brazil. Spain, having won the FIFA World Cup and Nations League last year, will be looking forward to continuing its winning streak in the Summer Olympics despite the Olympics being a new experience for the top-ranked Spaniards.
Moreover, it would be intriguing to see whether Canada, the defending champions, will be able to turn things around as they did in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics Final after handing down a surprising defeat to the Swedish team. It is also essential to note that the Canadians are the only team that managed to reach the podium in women’s football at each of the last three Olympic Games displaying their solid winning streak.
On the men’s side of things, sadly, Brazil, the champions of the earlier edition were eliminated before reaching the group stage. This means that we are surely going to see the crown shift to another team. As the host nation, France, led by captain Alexandre Lacazette, is the favorite to win the gold medal. Spain and Argentina are also strong competitors coming fresh from their UEFA Euro 2024 and Copa América 2024 victories.
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