France’s win against Argentina at the Olympic Games ended with a brawl as tensions between the two sides once again boiled over.
On Friday France beat Argentina 1-0 to advance to the semi-finals of the men’s football competition at the Paris Games.
Crystal Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta scored the only goal of the game with a bullet header in the first half, although Thierry Henry’s side had a late second ruled out by VAR for a foul.
The match promised to be a heated affair following the recent racism row between the two sides.
Following Argentina’s victory in the final of the Copa America last month, Enzo Fernandez streamed himself singing an offensive song about French players.
The song, at times sung by a section of the Argentina support, made a racist reference to the African heritage of some French players and also included a transphobic slur.
Fernandez was widely criticised and was called out online by his French Chelsea teammate Wesley Fofana, who said: “Le football en 2024: racisme decomplexe,” which translates to: “Football in 2024: uninhibited racism.”
All of Chelsea’s French players – Wesley Fofana, Axel Disassi, Benoit Badiashile, Malo Gusto, Lesley Ugochukwu, Christopher Nkunku and Malang Sarr – unfollowed Fernandez on social media, according to talkSPORT.
Fernandez has since apologised to his club mates in-person.
The French FA made a complaint to FIFA about the incident.
On Friday night the Argentine national anthem was widely booed by the crowd in Bordeaux, as were the Argentine players when they had prolonged spells of possession.
Tensions boiled over at the final whistle on Friday with both sets of players coming together in the centre of the pitch.
After the scuffles had appeared to die down, the players sprinted down the tunnel towards an incident that appeared to be happening inside the stadium.
It is not yet known what happened in the tunnel area of the stadium.
Speaking to media after the match, France coach Thierry Henry denied that the win was revenge for France’s defeat to Argentina in the 2022 World Cup final.
“We don’t take this match as revenge because the World Cup was with other teams.
“I apologise for the final disturbance. It’s not what I wanted and I couldn’t control it. In fact, they [officials] kicked out [sent off] a player.”
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