Olympic men’s semi finals Results

August 20, 2008

Nigeria 4-1 Belgium
Argentina 3-0 Brasil

Argentina and Nigeria are set to play each other in the final of the men’s Olympic football tournament in Beijing’s main stadium, the Bird’s Nest, on August 23rd.

Nigeria thumped Belgium 4-1 in their Olympic semi-final tie.

The African side opened up scoring in the 17th minute. After an hour of even-sided play, the Belgians fell apart and conceded three more goals, only able to add a late consolation goal in the 88th minute.

Brasil was beaten 3 goals to nil by a lithe Argentina side. I had the pleasure of watching the exciting fixture live at the Beijing Worker’s Stadium.

Plenty of Argentines and Brasilians had shown up at the match, as well as many Beijing-ers dressed in appropriate football attire. Cheers of “Jai-ho!” (”Go!” in Mandarin) resounded across the stadium of 53,000 spectators.

The star of the night was surely Atletico Madrid striker Sergio “Kun” Aguero, who added his first two goals of the tournament at the most critical of times.

The Atleti forward was alert and ready to pounce at every moment, and it was no surprise when it was “El Kun” who converted a cross by Benfica’s Angel Di Maria to break the deadlock in the 53rd minute. Within 5 minutes, Aguero scored another in the same fashion.

Brasil had Lucas Leiva sent off for a tackle on Liverpool teammate Javier Mascherano in the penalty area. Argentine captain Riquelme easily converted a spot kick. With 10 men, and 3 goals down, Brasil had very little chance of getting back into the game.

Only to add to Brasil’s woes, Thiago Neves was sent off in the 84th minute, again for a tackle on Mascherano.

A teary-eyed Ronaldinho quickly left the pitch at the final whistle, perhaps to avoid the many cameras focused on his face. The Brasilian playmaker, who wanted to prove at these Games that his abilities to lead and perform are not fading, will have to do so when he joins Serie A side AC Milan and must be satisfied with a chance for Bronze in a match against Belgium on the 22nd of August.

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