Argentina Ol. vs Morocco Ol. prediction: WORLD: Olympic Games betting tips on match 2024-07-23 13:00.
[p]Football fans need not wait until the 2024 summer Olympic Games officially kicks off to get excited for this year’s tournament, as it’s one of the rare sports that gets going before the opening ceremony. One of the opening matches sees Argentina take on Morocco in a Group B encounter at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, and both teams are expected to make an imprint with Argentina being the second-favourites behind host-nation France for the gold medal, while Morocco are fourth on that list according to most bookmakers. [/p]
[p]A new gold medalist is guaranteed after defending champions Brazil’s shock failure to qualify for the games, and since their senior team are reigning World Cup champions and won this year’s Copa América not so long ago, it’s fair to assume this Argentina Olympic squad will have the talent to bring home the gold. Ex-Barcelona and Liverpool player Javier Mascherano has been put in charge of this unit of mostly Under-23 Argentine players, and he knows exactly what it takes since he’s won two Olympic Gold Medals in 2004 and 2008.[/p]
[p]The latter was when he was selected as one of the three overage players allowed in a squad, a duty bestowed on goalkeeper Gerónimo Rulli, defender Nicolás Otamendi, and striker Julián Álvarez this time around. They’ll play a big part when they come up against Morocco, a team that’ll charge into their eighth appearance at the Olympics Games with Tarik Sektioui at the helm, having secured qualification thanks to winning the 2023 Under-23 Africa Cup of Nations.[/p]
[p]Adding more silverware to their collection here would be an outstanding achievement for Morocco, who have never stepped on the podium in their seven previous Olympic tournaments. They’ll look to the services of Paris Saint Germain’s Achraf Hakimi who is undoubtedly their most high profile player, and he’ll be banking on the other overage players in Soufiane Rahimi and Mounir El Kajoui for support.[/p]
[p]Players to watch: Álvarez has shown he can perform in the big tournaments for Argentina, having contributed six goals and an assist in the World Cup and Copa América combined. Hakimi has proven just as vital to his country, considering he’s never lost when scoring for the Moroccan senior team (W7, D2).[/p]
[p]Hot stat: Argentina failed to make it out of the group stages at both the 2016 and 2020 Olympic games.[/p]