Paris 2024: Men's Olympics football predictions with 9/4 & 33/1 tips
Sports Journalist at FST, Gareth qualified as a journalist after graduating from university and spent over a decade as a freelance broadcast journalist, commentator and tipster before joining FST. Now living in Manchester, he is a long suffering Bolton Wanderers fan who also enjoys boxing, the NBA, tennis and rugby league.
The Paris Olympics 2024 men’s football tournament gets underway in France on Wednesday, two days before the opening ceremony, with 16 teams battling it out for the Gold Medal.
The Olympics squads must be made up of players under the age of 23, with each competing nation allowed three exemptions as overage players, so there should be plenty of up-and-coming talents involved alongside a smattering of more experienced pros.
Holders Brazil won’t be in Paris to defend their title after losing in qualifying to Argentina, while host nation France enter the competition as the favourites and Spain – the Silver Medallists in 2020 – are next in the betting.
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Olympics Football 2024 Predictions And Tips
France to win
As the squads are largely made up of youth players the Olympics tend to favour nations with strong academy systems and this year host nation France look the team to beat and are justifiable favourites.
France have a strong contingent of overage players with Alexandre Lacazette and Jean-Philippe Mateta providing experience in attack, while Sevilla centre-half Loïc Badé gives them quality in defence.
In Bayern Munich new boy Michael Olise the French a player who is already an established star in their 18-man squad, Castello Lukeba and Adrien Truffert have both been capped by the senior side and they have a number of other players who are regulars at their respective clubs.
Les Bleus have been drawn against New Zealand, Guinea and the USA in the group stages and should comfortably finish at the top of that pile. The Americans are the biggest threat in the first round, but they haven’t selected any big names among their overage contingent after the senior side competed in the Copa America in the summer.
Spain, who are looking to claim their second Gold Medal after losing the final four years ago, look France’s biggest threat and if they top their group the two European heavyweights would be on a semi-final collision course.
La Roja’s one winner’s medal came back in 1992 when the Games took place in Barcelona but they have won Silver twice since that success, and they have a talented crop of players heading to France. They have taken a different approach with their overage allowance and selected players who have just missed the cut-off, with Bologna’s Juan Miranda and Braga forward Adrián Bernabé (both 24) their only inclusions over the age of 23.
Fermin Lopez and Alex Baena were both in the successful Euro 2024 squad but both featured sparingly and weren’t involved after the group stages.
Argentina are the third favourites and if the two-time winners can top their Group B they will probably avoid France and Spain until the final, but their squad is largely made up of players who play in South America and after winning the Copa America they haven’t selected any of their senior stars for the tournament.
Spain are serious contenders but France may have the edge with Bade bringing experience in defence, while Olise, Lacazette and Mateta should form a formidable attack.
Outsider Olympics Football 2024 Tip
Japan to win
Group D is the hardest to call with Paraguay, Mali, Israel and Japan and the latter look an interesting option here as potential dark horses to go all the way.
The Young Blue Samurai have resisted the urge to pick any overage players and there aren’t any particularly recognisable names within their squad, although Bristol City fans will probably want to take a look at summer arrival Yu Hirakawa over the course of the tournament.
However, the winner of Group D will probably avoid Spain and France until the final and Japan come into the tournament in good form. The Asian nation beat the USA in June during a four-match winning streak and then completed their warm-up campaign with a 1-1 draw with host nation France in Toulon earlier this month and may be the surprise package of at Paris 2024.
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