Paris Olympics football group stage, Morocco upset Argentina, Spain narrowly beat Uzbekistan

PARIS, July 24 (Xinhua) — The French men’s football group match at the Paris Olympics was disrupted by spectator riots on Wednesday, but in the end Morocco unexpectedly defeated Argentina 2-1.

Argentina’s Cristian Medina tied the game at 2-2 in the final moments when several spectators wearing Morocco jerseys stormed onto the pitch. The players then temporarily left while police took control of the situation.

The match was suspended for nearly two hours after all fans had left, with VAR ruling that Medina’s goal was offside and play resumed three minutes later in an empty stadium. Morocco held a 2-1 lead until the end.

Morocco’s two goals were scored by Sofiane Rahimi, while Giuliano Simeone pulled one back for Argentina in the 68th minute.

In order to advance to the knockout stage, Argentina must now rely on positive results from the other two opponents in the group, Iraq and Ukraine, to advance to the knockout stage.

Uzbekistan showed threats from the beginning and threatened Spain several times. Spain managed to fend off Uzbekistan’s attack and took a 1-0 lead in the 29th minute when right back Marc Pubill scored from captain Abel Ruiz’s free kick.

Uzbekistan equalized the score with a penalty kick before halftime. In the first half stoppage time, Spain’s Pau Kubarsi brought down Mohammad Khodir Hamralev in front of the goal. The referee awarded a penalty after VAR intervened. Uzbekistan captain Erder Shomurodov scored the penalty.

Spain then had a penalty kick, but Sergio Gomez’s shot was blocked by Uzbek goalkeeper Abduvohid Nematov in the 59th minute. Three minutes later, the Real Sociedad striker fired the ball into Nematov’s goal to equalize.

France did not disappoint at home, with key players Alexandre Lacazette, Michael Oliseh and Loic Bader each scoring a goal in the second half to help the host beat the United States 3-0.

Asian powerhouse Japan showed its strength against Paraguay, winning 5-0, with Rito Yamamoto scoring one goal, Shunsuke Mito and Shota Fujio scoring two goals each.

Also on Wednesday, New Zealand beat Guinea 2-1, Egypt drew 0-0 with the Dominican Republic, Iraq beat Ukraine 2-1 and Israel drew 1-1 with Mali.