No gold medal for the French men’s team, beaten in overtime by Spain in the final

Having started badly, then on the verge of exultation, Thierry Henry’s players delivered an epic match, maintaining the suspense until the end, but ended up giving in on Friday at the Parc des Princes.

They will not succeed the Olympic champions of Los Angeles 1984. The French footballers will have to settle for the silver medal for these home Games. The last step was slightly too high against a Spanish team that knows its score by heart and that wins its first Olympic title since 1992. Alexandre Lacazette and his teammates were beaten in extra time (5-3), Friday August 9. They will have grazed their dream of apotheosis in Paris for their only match of the tournament in the capital.

Finding the right adjectives after such a match is not easy. In the space of 120 minutes, the Parc des Princes crowd will have seen just about everything: sun, rain, then a pink sky. A motivated, apathetic, triumphant, then dejected Blues. Trailing 3-1 until the 79th minute, they gave themselves reasons to believe until the end, but will have to be content with the silver medal, the 56th trinket of the French delegation in these Olympic Games.

They will have had the merit of doing better than the A team in the semi-finals of the Euro a month ago, already against Spain. The match did not end after 30 minutes of play even if the scenario seemed to take the same direction with aan extremely quick opening goal, but the joy caused by this goal from Enzo Millot, back after his one-match suspension following a fight against Argentina, lasted only a moment.

However, there was reason to see it as a good omen, a particularly tasty wink from history. 40 years after the Euro 1984 final, the Parc des Princes was treated to a new “Arconada”. The Spanish goalkeeper, and PSG player, Arnau Tenas was guilty of a gross handling error on the French midfielder’s rather innocuous strike (11th). Rewarded for their desire, the Blues then fell asleep and were immediately punished, suffering a reversal as brutal as it was unpleasant.

In ten minutes, Spain managed to get back on level terms, take the lead and even break away. La Roja in yellow simply converted their three goal-scoring opportunities. Fermin Lopez, the Barcelona playmaker, scored twice to equalise with an uncontrolled cross-shot (18th), then by pushing into the net a ball pushed back by Guillaume Restes (22nd). With six goals in total in this tournament, the Spanish midfielder ensured that he would finish as top scorer.

The third goal, scored from a direct free-kick by Alex Baena (one of the two Euro winners to do the double this summer), stunned Les Bleus, so much so that they only resurfaced at the very end of the first half. A moment chosen by Arnau Tenas to show that he was determined not to make the slightest mistake again. With a reflex of his hand, he pushed away a header from Jean-Philippe Mateta at point-blank range (45th + 2).

After the break, it was the crossbar’s turn to say “no” to a powerful header from Manu Koné (57th). Faced with his team’s inability to score the goal that could completely change the dynamics of the match, Thierry Henry did not hesitate to replace captain Lacazette before the hour mark. Not one to overstep his bounds, Manu Koné, once again, forced Arnau Tenas into a difficult save after a one-two in the box (71st).

Never discouraged, as against Egypt, the Blues continued to push and, as often, the light came from Michael Olise. On a free kick that he obtained and then took, Maghnes Akliouche kept hope alive by reducing the gap with a rather unorthodox deflection at the near post (79th). The match tipped into the irrational when the VAR awarded a penalty to the Blues at the start of added time (90th + 2), which Jean-Philippe Mateta converted to force extra time.

But, despite the psychological ascendancy and the support from the stands, he missed the goal that would have put the French team in the lead. Less sharp and especially dependent on solitary rushes from Désiré Doué and Michael Olise, it finally ended up giving in to the Spaniards, who were solid both mentally and physically. Found behind the defense in the penalty area, the substitute Sergio Camello delivered the fatal blow with a subtle chip (100th). More anecdotally, the latter killed all suspense on the last action of the match, on the counter (120th + 1). A few seconds later, the referee whistled and extinguished the tricolor golden dream.