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Jean-Phillipe Mateta

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.

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We also had a rematch of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Final this time at an Olympics soccer match between France and Argentina at Stade Velodrome in Marseille.

This time, the one and only early header off a corner by Crystal Palace No.9 Jean Phillipe-Mateta was enough to see off Argentina the whole way through for France thanks to a series of Argentinian missed opportunities with the 1-0 win. Now the host nation will take on Egypt on Tuesday morning at 5am AEST whose next opponents got away with the win earlier today v Paraguay via penalties 5-4 when both teams settled the score 1-1 after a long 120 minutes of open time.

Disappointing from Argentina with the loss despite having lots of ball there to try and kick out France of the Men’s Olympic soccer tournament. But then they kept on hitting and missing these shots on goal that gave the French keeper a sigh of relief time and time again, which was unfortunately not good enough at the end of the day following their last 8 exit. They might have made the knockout stages for the first time since their gold medal run back in 2008 in Beijing but they will have to wait four years if Argentina wants it back that could be 20 years since their last Olympics soccer triumph come LA in 2028.

And well done to France on what has been a magnificent win v Argentina on home soil with unfinished business by their head coach Thierry Henry. Love seeing Phillipe-Mateta sprint on time for that header where he’s so lethal in all fronts that a No.9 should do as proven in the Premier League for Crystal Palace. Yes, there’s nothing the French can do when their second goal was ruled out by VAR.  But despite not having much ball opportunities, the French were fortunate enough to escape the Argentinians unscathed with the 1-0 win. Now they’ve yet to have played in Paris so far but it looks like France will need their full support on Monday night over there in Lyon, so they can hopefully finish off a high v the winner of Morocco or Spain.

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