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In fact, almost a week ago, the group stage of the men's football team at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games has kicked off. After all, due to the long schedule, Olympic football has always started first and ended almost before and after the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games.
However, because the men's football team participating in the competition are all U23 teams and the Olympic football is not a level A event, in fact, the attention and exposure have always been extremely limited. Therefore, looking back at the Olympic football in the past may be the only important direction that can attract fans. After all, U23, which can also be called the cradle of superstars, was once the starting point for the growth of too many stars!
Focus on Paris: Hosts France are the favourites to win the title
According to the recent prediction released by the football media "SCORE 90", France has a 30% probability of topping the table, followed by Spain (26%), Argentina & Japan (9%) and Morocco (8%).
After the first two rounds, France, Spain and Japan are currently top of the group with six points from two wins. At present, only Group B qualification is extremely scorching - the situation of four teams with three points after two rounds makes the final round of the battle for supremacy extremely fierce.
And this situation is also reminiscent of the situation in Group E of the European Championship a month ago - the four teams that also accumulated three points after two rounds were tied in the final round, and the four teams with the same four points, only Ukraine were eliminated by goal difference.
A review of past champions - from the former champion to the complete monopoly of the South American team today
In the five Olympic Games since 2004, South American teams have won all of them, and Argentina and Brazil have won one back-to-back title. The previous countries that won the championship were already the Hungary national team in 1964 and 1968.
European football does not seem to be good at the Olympic Games, and in the past two tournaments, Germany and Spain have lost to Brazil and finished second. The last time a European team won the championship was Spain, the host team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Therefore, whether to bring back to Europe the Olympic champion, which has not been won for 32 years, is indeed a huge task and pressure on the France team.
Olympic records - Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo
Although a long time has passed, the story of Messi and the Olympics will still be fresh in the memory of many Chinese fans - in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Chinese team participated in this event as the host, although the results are not satisfactory, but it can be regarded as leaving its own footprints in international competitions!
And Argentina also became the ultimate winner of this tournament, because with Messi and Aguero, they helped their country win the gold medal.
But the relatively sad is Cristiano Ronaldo, although the 2004 Athens Olympics accompanied the team, but Portugal, which was directly eliminated in the group stage, did not make any waves.
Review of the Olympic superstars
Neymar, Xavi, Ronaldo and Crespo have all left their mark here
As a back-to-back Olympic gold medalist in 2016 and 2020, Brazil is naturally known for having players such as Neymar and Antony and Richarlison. Of course, Brazil striker Richarlison, who now plays for Tottenham, also won the top scorer of the men's football team at Tokyo 2020. Before him, Bayern's Germany winger Gnabry had also won the title of top scorer.
And the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the past actually had Harvey and Park Ji-sung. The rivalry between the two even continued to the Champions League final between Manchester United and Barcelona in the summit conversation.
And when it comes to the starlight effect, perhaps Brazil at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics is the ceiling of the Olympic men's football team. After all, with Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Bebeto, Carlos and Dida, they can be said to have come to United States with half of the national team.
However, although the final gold medal was won by Nigeria, the Samba Army, which won at least one bronze medal, was not empty-handed.
Of course, in this tournament, Argentina's Crespo also shined, helping Argentina score 6 goals and become the top scorer, and finally brought a silver medal to his country.