Argentina vs Morocco

Stade Geoffroy-Guichard is the venue as Argentina and Morocco go head-to-head in the opening encounter of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

Led by former Barcelona and Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano, Argentina’s Olympics squad will look to follow in the footsteps of the senior team, which won the 2024 Copa America, and conquer the tournament for the first time. For quite a long, Argentina’s best result at the Olympics was in 1928 when they won the silver medal. But Mascherano was part of the Olympics team that lifted back-to-back titles in 2004 and 2008. He’s now keen to replicate that success as a manager. With experienced stars such as Julian Alvarez and Nicolas Otamendi, La Albiceleste are the second-favorite behind host nation France for the gold medal, according to most bookmakers.

Heading into the tournament as the fourth favorite, Morocco secured qualification thanks to winning the 2023 Under-23 Africa Cup of Nations under the stewardship of up-and-coming coach Tarik Sektioui. Sektioui will turn to Paris Saint-Germain superstar Achraf Hakimi to lead the charge. Hakimi boasts an unbeaten record across all nine scoring appearances for the senior national team (W7, D2). His talismanic presence will reinforce Morocco’s hopes of progressing past the group stages in their first Olympics foray since 2012. That year, the Atlas Lions failed to make it out of the group phase, having drawn a blank in two of their three matches (D2, L1).