Olympia 2021 – Football: France is exposed to Mexico – Spain only 0-0

The comfortable summer of football continues for the French national teams: in the European Under-21 Championship and the Pan-European Championship, the world champion country finished in the first knockout stage, and the Olympic football tournament now began with one for Équipe Tricolore 1:4-(0:0) a well-deserved defeat At the top is the same sense of alertness.

In the run-up to the tournament, the French, like the German Football Association, had problems winning their stars in matches in Tokyo. The most famous faces of the French national team along with professional Herta-Lucas Tousart, Florian Touvin and André-Pierre Gignac, are making their money at the best Mexican club Tigres – since Olympic football held a high position in the country of the 2012 gold medal winner, the duo could be released without problems for the national team .

The two stars alone were not enough against a cheerful Mexican team, with Eric Vega taking the lead shortly after the first half (47th place). Francisco Cordova increased a little later (55), before Gignac converted a penalty kick to the temporary kick (69). Cesar Montes had previously ousted substitute Randall Kolo Mwany. But Mexico remained clearly superior and came through Joker’s goals from Carlos Antona (80) and Eduardo Aguirre (90) to the clear and deserved opening win. The other contenders in Group A are hosts South Africa and Japan.

The stars of Spain are not formed yet

The Spaniards also ranked among the traditionally poor results of European teams in Olympic football tournaments: the last gold medal from a European country was in Barcelona in 1992 – at that time for host Spain. It was also expected that the Spanish national team would have good chances this summer. Because of the specificity of the Spanish sports legislation, the clubs have to release their players for the tournament, so that EM stars such as Pedri or Mikel Oyarzabal are in the starting lineup against Egypt.

But in Sapporo, both teams remained goalless. Not only did the Spaniards fail to live up to their expectations, they also had to complain about two injuries: midfielder Dani Ceballos and defender Oscar Mingueza were substituted before the break.

New Zealand with respectable success

In Group B, the Oceanic representative scored a surprise victory: New Zealand won the duel against South Korea’s best talent Valencia Lee Kang in 1-0 (0-0) The winning goal came via Premier League striker Chris Wood of Burnley FC (72nd place) .

Cote d’Ivoire win the German group

Ivory Coast won their opening match against Saudi Arabia with some difficulty. The Ivorian team first benefited from an own goal by Abdelilah Al-Amri (39th place), before the second half, Salem Al-Dosari equalized (44). Frank Kessie from Milan put Ivory Coast back to the front after the 66th break and secured his country’s 2-1 (1-1) victory in the duel between group opponents Germany and Brazil.