Uzbekistan vs Egypt

A place in the knockout stages of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games is at stake as Uzbekistan and Egypt go head-to-head at Nantes’ Stade de la Beaujoire.

Uzbekistan’s first-ever appearance in the Olympics men’s football tournament saw their fans throw a spectacle in Paris. Yet a more heavily fancied Spain condemned Timur Kapadze’s team to a 2-1 defeat in their Group C curtain-raiser. Despite faring impressively against the Spaniards, the White Wolves must put some points on the board against Egypt to keep their qualification hopes alive. Scoring shouldn’t be a problem for the 2023 AFC U-23 Asian Cup runners-up, given that they’ve found the back of the net in their last four U23 internationals (W1, D1, L2). Encouragingly, one of those four matches was a 2-1 victory against Egypt in October, but they’ve since gone winless in back-to-back matches against African opposition (D1, L1).

On the other hand, Egypt’s second consecutive appearance at the Olympics was off to an underwhelming start as they drew 0-0 against the debutants Dominican Republic in their Group C opener, throwing their hopes of reaching the knockouts for the third time in the 21st century into doubt. On a more positive note, Roger Micale’s men have gone unbeaten in regulation time across their last nine outings since losing to Saudi Arabia in January (W5, D4). Netting the opening goal could be Egypt’s ticket to a much-needed victory, considering none of their last six games at the Olympics have seen one or both sides fail to get on the scoresheet (W1, D2, L3).