Morocco secured a memorable 2-1 victory over Argentina in their opening Group B encounter at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games on Wednesday.
Two goals by Soufiane Rahimi helped the North African side showcase resilience and tactical discipline to overcome the South American giants in a match filled with drama and excitement.
Morocco took the lead just before halftime when Rahimi found the back of the net in the 45th minute, capitalizing on an assist from Bilal El Khannouss.
The Atlas Lions doubled their lead early in the second half when Rahimi calmly converted a penalty in the 49th minute, following a VAR review that confirmed no foul in the buildup.
Argentina pulled one back in the 68th minute through Giuliano Simeone, who scored with a well-placed effort.
In the dying moments of the game, Argentina thought they had equalized when Cristian Medina found the net in the 90th +16 minute. However, VAR intervened once again, ruling out the goal for offside, much to the relief of the Moroccan fans.
In another match of the Paris Olympics men’s football competition, Mali salvaged a point in their opening match against Israel on Wednesday evening.
Making their second Olympics appearance since their quarter-final finish on debut two decades ago, the West Africans kicked off their campaign with an impressive showing that saw them come from behind to salvage a point at the Parc des Princes Stadium in Paris.
While getting a point gives the West Africans a fairly good start, the result was certainly not a true reflection of the tie, with Mali dominating most of the possession, but just lacking the clinical finish when it mattered the most.
Failing to capitalise on most of their possession, Israel scored 10 minutes from the break after a Diallo Hamidou’s unfortunate own goal from an attempted clearance gave the Israelites the lead in the 55th minute.
Despite conceding, Mali continued surging forward, launching attack after attack and showing no sign of discouragement from the own goal. Their relentlessness was duly rewarded after the troublesome Diarra Thiemoko eliminated numbers to send a delightful ball into the danger area which was met by the oncoming Doumbia who headed home to level matters and salvage a point for Mali.
The result puts Mali third in the group with two more matches to go against group leaders, Japan as well as Paraguay who lost 5-0 to Japan in the earlier fixture.
