🔴 LIVE: Egypt and Paraguay level in first half of Olympics quarter final

The 2024 Olympic Games jump up a notch on Friday as the men’s football quarter final ties take place in France.

Here’s how it is all going down.

Egypt vs Paraguay

The opening 10 minutes were unsurprisingly cagey with neither side dominating the ball.

Egypt, who entered the game in buoyant mood after their shock victory over Spain, struggled to build on that, with Paraguay’s pressing preventing them from settling into any type of rhythm.

They suffered a scare when captain Mohamed Elneny went down and required treatment, but the former Arsenal player soldiered on.

More to follow…

Japan knocked out by Spain

Scorers: Fermin 11′, 73′, Ruiz 86′

Spain joined Morocco in the last four of the Olympic games after sweeping aside Japan 3-0 in Lyon.

La Roja, who are already European champions at senior level, took just 11 minutes to find the lead against Japan when Barcelona youngster Fermin Lopez rifled home from distance.

It came in the midst of a comfortable first half for the Spanish, with Japan failing to register a shot in the opening…. And looking easily second best to their opponents.

That changed after the cooling break, with Japan looking far stronger than they had to date, and they were massively unfortunate to see an equaliser chalked off for a nominal offside in the build up just before the interval.

They were unlucky once more in first half stoppage time when Mao Hosoya headed the ball against the post from a free kick, with Spain fortunate to head into the break in the lead.

Things improved for them at the beginning of the second half, but Japan once again grew into proceedings and only some poor choices in the final third and last-ditch defending prevented them from levelling the game.

At the other end, Juan Miranda’s free kick forced Kokubo into a diving save. From the resulting corner though, Fermin Lopez doubled his tally, thumping home a fantastic dipping effort on the half volley to leave Spain on the verge of heading through.

Japan pushed on to try and get back into the game, with Arnaud Tenas preventing them from pulling one back in the dying stages courtesy of an excellent diving stop.

And Spain inflicted further damage in the final minutes as Abel Ruiz tapped home after the ball broke to him from a set piece, before moments later Japan saw an effort of their own thunder off the crossbar.

Morocco thrash USA

Scorers: Rahimi 28′ (Pen), Akhomach 58′, Hakimi 70′, El Mehdi Maouboub 90+1′ (Pen)

Morocco advanced to the semi-finals of the 2024 Olympic games after brushing aside a lacklustre USMNT at the Parc des Princes to book their spot in the last four.

The Atlas Lions began the game on the front foot, with the USA struggling to get the ball off their opponents and offering nothing with it on the rare occasion that they did.

They were unlucky in the manner in which they fell behind though, with a coming together between two Moroccan players and Nathan Harriel was deemed a penalty onfield, before VAR confirmed the decision, allowing Soufiane Rahimi to score his fifth goal of the Olympic games.

The goal did little to spark life into the game, and the USA failed to have a shot on target on the first half, finishing with just one effort on goal across the first 45 minutes.

The US began the second half more brightly, and registered two quick shots on target without really testing Munir in the Moroccan goal.

But on the hour mark they looked on the verge of an exit from the competition when great work on the left wing ended with young winger Ilias Akhomach sliding the ball home from close range.

That exit was all but confirmed with 10 minutes later when Achraf Hakimi poked home a nicely worked move to send Morocco’s travelling support into raptures and their nation into the last four.

There was still time for things to get worse for the USMNT as a stoppage time handball awarded Morocco a second penalty, which substitute El Mehdi Maouboub dutifully tucked away to cap off a superb performance for the Atlas Lions which sees them meet Spain in the semi-final.

Still to come…

Argentina vs France