The men’s Olympic football tournament has reached the business end with the knockout stages kicking off in France in August 2.
Much-fancied Argentina were stunned in their first match, going down 2-1 to Morocco, but Javier Mascherano’s side recovered with back-to-back wins to book a mouth-watering quarterfinal showdown with France.
Les Bleus joined Japan in compiling a 100 percent group-stage record. The Samurai Blue’s arguably dubious reward is a showdown with Spain, who have Euro 2024 winners Fermin Lopez and Alex Baena in their squad.
Here’s a full rundown of the men’s Olympic football knockout bracket, mapping out the path to Olympic glory.
MORE: What happened in Argentina vs. Morocco Olympic soccer match?
KNOCKOUT STAGE SCHEDULE: Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Bronze | Final
Olympic men’s soccer 2024 knockout stage bracket: Fixtures, results and schedule
Kickoff times listed below are in local time (CET). The UK (BST) is 1 hour behind Paris, the US/Canada (ET) 6 hours behind, India (IST) 3.5 hours ahead and Australia (AEDT) 8 hours ahead.
For example, a 3 p.m. CET kickoff translates to 2 p.m. BST / 9 a.m. ET / 6.30 p.m. IST / 11 p.m. AEDT.
| Date | Time (CET) | Match | Location |
| Fri, Aug. 2 | 3 p.m. | Morocco 4-0 USA | Parc des Princes (Paris, France) |
| Fri, Aug. 2 | 5 p.m. | Spain 3-0 Japan | Groupama Stadium (Lyon, France) |
| Fri, Aug. 2 | 7 p.m. | Egypt 1(5)-1(4) Paraguay | Orange Velodrome (Marseille, France) |
| Fri, Aug. 2 | 9 p.m. | France 1-0 Argentina | Matmut Atlantique (Bordeaux, France) |
| Date | Time (CET) | Match | Location |
| Mon, Aug. 5 | 6 p.m. | Morocco 1-2 Spain | Groupama Stadium (Lyon, France) |
| Mon, Aug. 5 | 9 p.m. | France 3-1 Egypt | Orange Velodrome (Marseille, France) |
| Date | Time (CET) | Match | Location |
| Thu, Aug. 8 | 5 p.m. | Morocco 6-0 Egypt | Stade de la Beaujoire (Nantes, France) |
| Date | Time (CET) | Match | Location |
| Fri, Aug. 9 | 6 p.m. | Spain 5-3 France | Parc des Princes (Paris, France) |
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What are the men’s eligibility rules for Olympic football?
For men’s football at the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules state only players under the age of 23 can be selected, with the exception of a maximum of three over-23 players permitted in each squads.
This means for the Paris Olympics, 15 of the players in final squads must be born on or after January 1, 2001.
When the rule was first introduced in 1984, players who had appeared at the World Cup were not allowed to play, though it was relaxed slightly in 1992 to allow those who had played less than 90 minutes at a World Cup to compete.
Why are the eligibility rules for men’s and women’s Olympic football different?
When the men’s tournament first allowed professional players in 1984, FIFA was concerned this would allow the Olympics to rival and eventually overtake the World Cup in significance.
As a result, a compromise was reached that forced European and South American sides — football’s strongholds — to send those who had not played in a World Cup before, whilst allowing all other nations to field any players.
In addition, as the Olympics is outside a FIFA-sanctioned international window, clubs are not compelled to release players to be available for their national side, meaning many of the top stars of world football do not play at the Olympics.
