Thierry Henry stood with his arms outstretched, facing the excited crowd and taking in the moment.
The final of the men’s soccer tournament at the Paris Olympics was approaching after France was pushed hard by Egypt in Monday’s semifinal at Stade de Lyon.
Jean-Philippe Mateta was surrounded by his teammates after scoring his second goal in a 3-1 victory, which earned France a spot in the final against Spain at Parc des Princes on Friday.
“It was like, I don’t know how to say — it was incredible,” Mateta said. The matchup between France and Spain means there will be a European gold medalist at the Olympics for the first time in 32 years.
France’s place in the final seemed uncertain as Egypt was close to causing an upset after taking the lead with Mahmoud Saber’s 62nd-minute goal.
France had hit the goalpost three times before Mateta scored in the 83rd minute, tying the game and sending it into extra time. Mateta scored again in the 99th minute, and Michael Olise added a third goal for France in the 108th minute.
“It’s not easy, right? We knew that. But at the end of the day, we kept on coming. We kept on trying. We kept on creating from the wing and trying to play and we got our reward,” said France coach Henry.
This guarantees a gold medal for a European team for the first time since Spain’s win at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics.
It also ends the winning streak of Latin American teams, which had seen Brazil, Argentina (twice each), and Mexico win the tournament in the last five editions.
Henry, who has won the World Cup and European Championship with France as a player, now has a chance to add a major coaching honor to his career, which is still young. “I’m not there yet. We have the medal, that’s for sure. Let’s not talk about the gold,” he said.
France’s only Olympic gold medal was won at the Los Angeles 1984 Games, and it also earned a silver medal when the Games were held in Paris in 1900.
One of the top teams before the tournament, Henry’s squad entered the semifinal with a perfect record, having won all their group stage matches and defeated Argentina in the quarterfinals.
However, Egypt had already shown it could surprise people by beating Spain to top its group. They almost pulled off another surprise when Saber scored past France’s goalkeeper Guillaume Restes.
At that point, Loic Bade had already hit the post with a header in the first half. Egypt’s goal made the French fans react, cheering loudly to boost their team.
Egypt’s goalkeeper Alaa Hamza stopped a close-range shot from Alexandre Lacazette. France hit the goalpost twice more in quick succession, with Lacazette’s header hitting the post and Bade’s header hitting the crossbar.
The equalizer came when Olise made a run through the midfield and passed to Mateta. With Hamza coming out to narrow the angle, Mateta got to the ball first and scored.
France thought they had won a penalty deep in stoppage time after VAR reviewed a handball by Omar Fayed.
Referee Said Martinez took a long time reviewing the monitor before deciding there had been a foul in the buildup, not on the handball.
Although this decision gave Egypt a break and sent the game into extra time, Fayed was sent off in the 92nd minute after being booked during the review of the potential penalty.
France took advantage of having an extra player and scored with Mateta’s second goal of the match.
Once again, Olise was key to the play — he crossed a ball into the box where Kiliann Sildillia headed it across the goal. Mateta jumped and headed the ball past Alaa. Olise then scored himself with a low left-footed shot from inside the box.
“We showed the team that we have character, and we showed the fans and everyone that we have character,” Mateta said. “We can believe we can score, and we do.”
Egypt, which has finished fourth in the Olympics twice before — in Amsterdam 1928 and Tokyo 1964 — will play against Morocco in an all-African bronze medal match in Nantes on Thursday.
