Ukraine vs Argentina

It’s a ‘make or break’ fixture for Ukraine and Argentina as they lock horns in a high-stakes 2024 Olympic Games encounter at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais.

Ukraine recovered from a morale-wracking 2-1 loss against Group B outsiders Iraq with a spirited 2-1 triumph against Morocco last time out. Despite falling a man down midway through the second half, Ruslan Rotan’s side netted an injury-time winner to keep their hopes of reaching the knockouts in their maiden Olympic Games appearance alive. Despite seeing the odds stacked against them ahead of the kick-off, the Ukrainians come into proceedings in high spirits, having lost just one of their last nine outings (W6, D2). Ukraine failed to include Chelsea ace Mykhailo Mudryk in their Olympic squad. Yet his absence will not derail their attacking ambitions after scoring 2+ goals in seven of those nine abovementioned fixtures. But as they’ve conceded in their last six, they can’t afford to take anything for granted.

In the meantime, Argentina kept cool heads following a controversial 2-1 loss to Egypt in their Group B opener to bounce back with a comprehensive 3-1 win against Iraq in round two. With Argentina’s opening two games producing seven goals, it’s only natural to assume another high-scoring contest could be on the cards. Though all three teams in Group B head into the last group-stage matchday level at three points, Javier Mascherano’s men sit atop the standings. That means they’ll reach the knockouts if they avoid defeat in Lyon following back-to-back group-phase eliminations. That’s a potentially good omen for La Albiceleste, considering they’ve won medals on all three occasions when they made it out of the group stage.