France beat Argentina in soccer at the 2024 Summer Olympics on Friday night, but things got ugly after the final whistle.
After the French scored a 1–0 victory in the quarterfinals, a brawl broke out between the teams near the middle of the field. It drifted towards the touchline as staff and security attempted to break things up.
Video is below.
— Footballtopdm (@footballtopdm) August 2, 2024
There was no love lost between the two sides throughout the match, as was seen in this interaction between Loïc Badé and Lucas Beltrán.
France's Loïc Badé was HYPED after muscling Argentina's Lucas Beltrán off the ball 😤 pic.twitter.com/pZezn4EP7T
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) August 2, 2024
The animosity between the two national teams has been boiling for a long time. They faced off in an absolute classic during the 2022 World Cup final, but things got much more contentious last month. After Argentina won Copa América, a video of its players singing an offensive song about French players of African heritage surfaced. Though this tournament features the countries' Under-23 teams, it's clear the tension was heightened entering the match.
France got a fifth minute goal from Jean-Philippe Mateta and it managed to hold the 1–0 lead throughout the rest of the match, even with more than 10 minutes of added time in the second half.
The French will move on to face Egypt in one semifinal, while Morocco and Spain will do battle in the other.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Argentina, France Brawl After Olympic Soccer Match.
