Wow!! We thought the host nation France would be out at one stage when the first half was quiet and Egypt got away with the early 2nd half goal. But wait, the 2nd semi-final of the Paris 2024 men’s soccer tournament wasn’t over just yet when France held Egypt back with the 1-1 equaliser at the end of 90 mins normal time. Since it’s a knockout match, the game went into extra time where France not only scored one but two more goals during the extra half-hour that secured them a gold medal match at PSG’s Parc De Princes Stadium in Paris this weekend v Spain. Gotta hail their main man & their main striker who plays for Crystal Palace in Jean-Phillipe Mateta. He scored two brilliant goals where he can do everything that a No.9 requires such as mainly scoring goals as well as beating opposition defenders that kept France’s hopes alive – one for the equaliser late in the 2nd half and another to overtake Egypt for the lead during the 1st extra time period.
Plus, shoutout his national team-mate and now former Crystal Palace club team-mate, having just joined Bayern Munich recently, and his name is Michael Olise over in the No.10 attacking midfield role. Olise also played a huge role earlier this morning with one assist for his former club team-mate Mateta as well as one late goal to safeguard France’s semi-final win over Egypt 3-1. Imagine that lethal partnership of Mateta and Olise if that went on and on going into the new Premier League season had Elise not moved clubs from Crystal Palace to Bayern but no denying the dream of Olise wanting to play for one of the best teams in the world, especially if it’s the Bundesliga in Germany where Bayern have won lots of titles there in the past.
And yes, heartbreak to Egypt who may have got away with the good 2nd half when both teams struggled to find the net early on. But they just couldn’t find a way to get on hold of them through the end, especially when less ball didn’t help that much. Although they can still bow out on a high for the Bronze Medal Match this Friday v another African side via Morocco. France is now set for a homecoming finish to the host city in Paris where they’ve yet to play there so far as let’s see if they can pull this off towards a home gold medal win v Spain this Friday afternoon over there/very early Saturday at 2 AM AEST.
