Spain beats Morocco and heads for Olympics final with France

Spain has progressed to the final of the Olympic Games where they will be hoping to lay their hands on their first-ever gold medal in the Olympic soccer event after beating African side Morocco in the semi-finals on Monday.

Spain secured the slot in the medals match on Friday after a 2-1 comeback victory against Morocco in the semi-finals of the 2024 Olympic men’s football tournament.

The match was played at Marseille’s Stade Vélodrome, but the first 15 minutes had nothing notable to show until a collision between Marc Pitbull and referee Ilgiz Tantashev forced the fourth official Glenn Nyberg to replace the injured official.

Moments later, the game sparked to life and Spain was the first to test Morocco’s Munir Mohamedi with a 25-yard strike from Fermín López. Despite Spain’s dominance, it was Morocco that scored first after Amir Richardson was tackled in the box.

The referee needed a VAR check to award a penalty kick to Morocco and Soufiane Rahimi continued his record of scoring in all matches at the current Olympics by dispatching the spot kick around the half-hour mark.

The second half started even slower and both teams resorted to long-range efforts but with 25 minutes left, Spain equalized when Fermin López stole the ball in the Moroccan box before scoring his fourth goal of the tourney.

The Atlas Lions responded well to Spain’s equalizer, but efforts from Richardson and Eliesse Ben Seghir from range failed to deliver. However, five minutes from time, Spain sealed the victory as López and Juanlu Sánchez combined on the right wing, and the latter drilled the ball across the goalkeeper to seal La Roja’s ticket to the gold medal match at the Parc des Princes on Friday.

Spain will face hosts France in the final after the French team defeated Egypt 3-1 in their own semi-final also on Monday. Crystal Palace forward Mateta scored a brace, while Bayern Munich winger Micheal Oliseh added another for the win after extra time.