France survived a scare in the Olympics semi-finals, with Jean-Philippe Mateta ensuring they would have a chance to play for gold on Friday.
France came from behind to beat 10-man Egypt 3-1 after extra time and reach the Olympic Games final thanks to a brace from Jean-Philippe Mateta.
Mahmoud Saber’s goal looked to be sending Egypt through, but Mateta and Michael Olise ensured that would not happen with help from Omar Fayed’s sending off in extra time.
Despite Egypt slightly edging the first half, the hosts almost took the lead when Loic Bade’s header struck the foot of the post just before half-time.
On the hour mark, Alexandre Lacazette squandered a glorious chance, and just moments later Shehata profited at the other end, rifling his powerful effort into the roof of the net.
France rallied soon after, with Lacazette and Bade hitting the woodwork in quick succession before Hamza Alaa made two brilliant saves to keep out the Les Bleus’ captain.
The hosts’ pressure finally paid off in the 83rd minute though – Olise raced through midfield before picking out his former Crystal Palace team-mate Mateta, who fired them level.
A lengthy VAR check deep in second-half stoppage time then proved fruitless as the referee stuck with the onfield decision to now award a penalty to France for a handball by Omar Fayed, who received a booking for dissent.
His game then went from bad to worse as he received his marching orders two minutes into extra time for a late tackle on Desire Doue.
Mateta thumped France in front with a close-range free header seven minutes later, and Olise made sure of their progress in the 108th minute, curling a low shot past Alaa before he could react.
- Data Debrief: Les Bleus march on
At one point, Thierry Henry had his head in his hands as France wasted chance after chance in front of goal.
In the first half they only created an expected goals (xG) of 0.2, but improved that to 2.33 from 17 shots in the second as Egypt eventually caved to the onslaught.
Mateta proved the difference-maker once more, having scored the goal to send them into the semi-finals, he added two more to his tally.
France will play in the final at the Olympics for the first time in 40 years, and they will face Spain in the gold-medal match on Friday.
