Paris 2024 Olympics men’s football: Quarter-final preview, schedule, and how to watch
From 16 teams down to eight, the men’s Olympic football quarter-finals are here.
The top two teams from the four groups have booked their spot in the knockout stages of the tournament, taking one step closer to the podium at Paris 2024.
Japan and Spain came into the final group games having already punched their ticket to the quarter-finals, leaving six spots up for grabs for the remaining 14 sides to contest.
Hosts France needed just a point from their clash with New Zealand to confirm their spot in the knockout rounds, going on to comfortably win 3-0.
Egypt, Morocco, Argentina, the United States, and Paraguay took the remaining five spots in what promises to be an unmissable showpiece on Friday (02 August).
Morocco will face the United States in the quarter-finals.
Men's Olympic football at Paris 2024: France and Argentina headline knockout rounds
Men's football at the Olympics this year has been a spectacle so far, with some tantalising knockout round clashes making for must-see viewing going forward.
The conclusion of Group A and B gave us our first ties of the next stage, with the headline act coming in the form of hosts France taking on Argentina. It is a huge clash with both of these nations tipped to be among the favourites to take home the gold.
Either one of them going home so early on will blow the race for the title wide open.
Argentina's shock defeat to Morocco in their Paris opener paved the way for the African nation to top the group with a thumping 3-0 victory over Iraq, with the South Americans finishing second.
Morocco will face the United States, who are into the knockout stages of the tournament for the first time since Sydney 2000 where they went on to finish just outside the medals in fourth, after seeing off Guinea 3-0.
It is history for the former, meanwhile, having never made it out of the group stages at the Games since competing with the Under-23s prior to Paris.
Spain opted to heavily rotate in their final group game against Egypt but saw themselves pushed down into second following a 2-1 defeat, while the Egyptians took the top spot. As a result, Spain will take on Japan, who were Group D victors with a 1-0 win over Israel.
Elsewhere in that group, a tense 1-0 victory over Mali means that Paraguay are into the last eight of the men's tournament for the first time since Athens 2004, where they stormed to a silver medal. A tough test awaits them in the form of Egypt.
The latter will be hoping they can better their multiple quarter-final runs, having always fallen at this hurdle in the past, most recently at Tokyo 2020 three years ago.
The United States are in the last eight for the first time in 24 years.
Men’s Olympic football at Paris 2024: Schedule and how to watch
Here are the clashes in the quarter-finals of the competition…
Friday 2 August
- 15:00 CET: Morocco v United States
- 17:00 CET: Japan v Spain
- 19:00 CET: Egypt v Paraguay
- 21:00 CET: France v Argentina
All the action from Paris 2024 can be watched via media rights holders (MRHs).
MRHs include France Télévisions in France, NBC in the United States, SKY NZ in New Zealand, Discovery Eurosport across Europe, Fuji TV/NHK/Nippon TV/TBS/TV Asahi/TV Tokyo in Japan, ARD/ZDF in Germany, the BBC in the United Kingdom, SuperSport in South Africa and Nine in Australia.
Check out the listings for your local broadcaster here.