The fiery end to this spicy contest in Bordeaux said it all.
As France’s players wildly celebrated their victory at the end of a frenetic match, players from both sides squared up to one another and the bad blood continued down the tunnel.
Thierry Henry’s victorious team later bounced back onto the pitch to take in the applause of their jubilant fans in blue.
This may only have been a quarter-final at the Olympic Games — overshadowed by Leon Marchand’s incredible feats in the pool — but this was a match both France and Argentina were desperate to win.
Tensions had bubbled to the surface and turned ugly at the end. This was a game that mattered so much.
It was the first meeting of the two countries after the World Cup final 2022 in Qatar — a game that Argentina won courtesy of a penalty shootout — and since footage emerged of Argentina players singing racist chants about French players after their Copa America triumph last month. The words to the chant were: “They play for France, but their parents are from Angola. Their mother is from Cameroon, while their father is from Nigeria. But their passport says French.”
France’s Mateta celebrates scoring the opening goal of Friday’s game (Romain Perrocheau/AFP via Getty Images)
The song also includes transphobic slurs, referring to French players as “cometravas, like (Kylian) Mbappe.” “Cometravas” is a slang term that essentially translates as “someone who has sex with transgender people”.
France defender Wesley Fofana described the chant as “uninhibited racism” and unfollowed his Chelsea teammate Enzo Fernandez, who filmed the video, on Instagram.
For their part, Argentina highlighted the racist comments made by Melvyn Jaminet, the French rugby player, while on tour last month in South America, a tour during which two French players, Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, were charged with sexual assault. Both players deny the charges.
As the event snowballed into a full-scale diplomatic incident, French president Emmanuel Macron met his counterpart Javier Milei last week in Paris to try and smooth things over.
Friday night’s game was played out between two different sets of players to those meetings at the World Cup — as the Olympics is primarily a tournament played by players under the age of 23, with three overage players. Julian Alvarez, Nicolas Otamendi and Geronimo Rulli were the only three players from Argentina’s Copa America squad to be named in the side for the Olympic Games.
Lacazette wags a finger at Argentina’s players (Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)
Back in Bordeaux, with an hour to go before kick-off, as children bounced around to music from a DJ (dropping Daft Punk tunes, obviously), friends played table football and families loitered with hot dogs and drinks, it did not have the feel of a match that had been billed the grudge clash of these Olympic Games.
Yet, thirty minutes later, Argentina’s players were roundly booed as they jogged onto the pitch at the Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux, it was a reminder of the extra needle that came with this fixture.
Nowhere was this more apparent than during the national anthems when Argentina’s was whistled and jeered. ‘La Marseillaise’ was given a rousing rendition.
Carrying that energy into the start of the game, France came flying out the traps and landed the first blow as Jean-Philippe Mateta — whose father was born in Democratic Republic of the Congo — flashed home a header from a Michael Olise corner.
Mateta had said before the game, “With what happened recently, all the French are touched by it”. The Crystal Palace striker seemed hellbent on taking the game by the scruff of the neck, with him and Olise at the heart of all France’s best play.
The 6ft 4in striker gave off the air of a protective older brother sticking up for his younger (and smaller) siblings and made it clear he wasn’t taking any nonsense from Argentina’s defenders, puffing his chest out and jabbing his fingers in their direction during one altercation before half time. He continually turned to the French crowd and urged them to turn up the noise.
After that lively start, the game remained open and frantic but Argentina began to claw their way back into the contest yet squandered numerous chances. Giuliano Simeone’s header was the most glaring miss.
As the match ticked on in the second half, a Mexican wave around the crowd reminded us this was just football at the Olympic Games.
Police in the stands during Friday night’s game (Romain Perrocheau/AFP via Getty Images)
But it roared back to life when Olise thought he had sealed the victory with a late goal. This sparked crazy scenes in the stands and manager Henry on the pitch, only for VAR to intervene.
Then there were ten minutes of stoppage time — a thrilling finish that resembled playground football, as both sides continued to flood forward and create chances. To add to the drama, riot police descended and surrounded the tiny number of Argentina fans in an unnecessary show of strength.
In the end, somehow, France held firm, with Loic Bade particularly heroic in defence.
Perhaps predictably, given what had come before, it ended in a large scuffle with Enzo Millot, who was substituted in the 95 minute, receiving a red card for seemingly winding up the Argentina bench. Millot’s red card followed 10 yellow cards being dished out by referee Ilgiz Tantashev, including one to Argentina coach Javier Mascherano.
“It was an important match because we felt insulted, all of France felt insulted, and we ended up as the winners of the game”, Bade said after the game. “It was nothing, we just celebrated and they didn’t like it.”
“Argentina wanted to kill the party, but they made the party even better,” Mateta added.
And so France march on at their home Olympics. But on this evidence, this rivalry is here to stay.
(Top photo: Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)
