Spain takes gold after 5-3 win against France in Olympic men’s soccer final

PARIS (AP) — It’s been a golden summer season for Spanish soccer.

Lower than a month after successful the European Championship, Spain adopted up with an exciting 5-3 extra-time victory within the Olympic males’s last towards France on Friday.

Sergio Camello’s two targets finally settled an epic match in Spain’s favor after France fought again from 3-1 all the way down to pressure additional time at Parc des Princes.

“We’re the happiest kids on the planet,” mentioned Camello, who had come on as an 83rd-minute substitute and sure made himself a nationwide icon.

Spain’s coach Santi Denia mentioned his gamers deserved to cry “tears of pleasure” after “such a long-suffering match.”

Lengthy-suffering for the gamers, perhaps. However for anybody watching, it’ll stay within the reminiscence as a basic.

France took an early lead by Enzo Millot however Spain replied with three targets in 10 minutes as Barcelona star Fermin Lopez Lopez struck twice and Alex Baena made it 3-1 within the twenty eighth minute.

Roared on by passionate house crowd, France mounted a late fightback within the second half after Maghnes Akliouche scored within the 79th. France pushed the sport to additional time when Jean-Phillipe Mateta equalized from the penalty spot within the 93rd minute.

However the momentum swung as soon as once more when Camello lifted over France goalkeeper Guillaume Restes within the one hundredth and he received his second when racing away from his personal half within the first minute of time added on.

The ahead tore off his shirt and was rapidly swamped by teammates and substitutes, who piled onto the sphere from the touchline in frenzied celebrations.

Spain, which misplaced the ultimate to Brazil on the Tokyo Olympics three years in the past, turned the primary European gold medalist in males’s soccer because it final gained the event on the Barcelona Video games in 1992.

Not even throughout Spain’s dominant run of successful back-to-back Euros and the World Cup from 2008-2012, may it add to that sole Olympic gold.

That wait led to Paris and underlined the facility of Spanish soccer as soon as once more. Spain additionally gained the underneath 19s European Championship final month — beating France within the last.

The Olympic victory marked a private double for Lopez and Baena who had been each a part of the Euro 2024-winning squad.

“What a summer season. And I hope this summer season by no means ends so we are able to proceed successful,” Baena mentioned. “I’m very completely satisfied to have made historical past with Spain.”

It was one other painful defeat in a last for a France group after shedding on penalties to Argentina on the World Cup in 2022. Like then, the French gamers confirmed their resilience to battle again from a shedding place and pressure additional time — solely to fall brief once more.

Whereas Camello’s targets finally ended French hopes of a primary Olympic gold since Los Angeles 1984, the group continued to cheer loudly as coach Thierry Henry and his gamers confirmed their appreciation with a lap of honor after the ultimate whistle.

“We tried to reply as finest we may,” Henry mentioned. “France is gorgeous after we are all collectively, after we unite. It was a beautiful sight to see these flags, pink, white and blue.

“Individuals from the get-go wished to help us. We misplaced tonight, however they stored singing.”

Spain’s victory ended the dominance of Latin American nations for the final 5 editions of the Olympics. Brazil and Argentina gained twice in that point, with Mexico additionally taking gold.

Nigeria gained at Atlanta 1996 and Cameroon at Sydney 2000.

Girls’s soccer can also be thriving in Spain after the nationwide group gained the World Cup final yr. But it surely couldn’t add to that success on the Olympics, with Spain’s ladies’s group shedding 1-0 to Germany within the bronze medal match earlier on Friday.

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James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson

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AP Summer season Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games