Olympic football silver medal for Spain after Brazil defeat

SPAIN have to settle for Olympic football silver medal after losing to Brazil

Spain came into the men’s Olympic football final this morning, Saturday, August 7, hoping to emulate the Barcelona 1992 squad which won the gold, but in this match against reigning champions Brazil, they started as underdogs at the Nissan Stadium in Yokohama, Tokyo, with Brazil playing in their third consecutive final, having won silver in London 2012.

In all their matches, the Spanish seem to be goal-shy, which was the same problem in this match, with just one shot on target during the first 45 minutes, but Brazil were not doing a whole lot better, with Everton forward Richarlison missing a 38th-minute penalty.

But then, two minutes into added time, the deadlock was broken, as Hertha BSC’s Matheus Cunha put the Brazilians in front, to go in 1-0 ahead at the break.

A second 45 minutes was still not the exciting encounter that had been anticipated between two such powerful footballing nations, and it was Mikel Oyarzabal who once again came to Spain’s rescue, levelling the scores with a superb volley on 61 minutes, with Brian Gil, Tottenham’s new recruit, hitting the woodwork with a stunning long-range strike just before the 90 minutes was up.

Extra time was called for again, and it was Malcolm, on as a substitute, who raced into the space and put the ball beyond Athletic Bilbao’s Unai Simon after 108 minutes, to give Brazil the gold medal in this Tokyo 2020 football final, and one can’t help but wonder why a Spanish squad featuring so many of its Euro 2020 campaign, with top players from LaLiga clubs, could not go that last step and win the gold.

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