Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's tournament

The men's football tournament at the 2008 Summer Olympics was held in Beijing and four other cities in the People's Republic of China from 7 August to 23 August. Associations affiliated with FIFA were invited to enter their men's under-23 teams in regional qualifying competitions, from which 15 teams, plus the host nation, reached the final tournament. Men's teams were allowed to augment their squads with up to three players over the age of 23.

2008 Men's Olympic Football Tournament
Tournament details
Host countryChina
Dates7–23 August
Teams16 (from 6 confederations)
Venue(s)6 (in 5 host cities)
Final positions
Champions Argentina (2nd title)
Runners-up Nigeria
Third place Brazil
Fourth place Belgium
Tournament statistics
Matches played32
Goals scored75 (2.34 per match)
Attendance1,404,254 (43,883 per match)
Top scorer(s) Giuseppe Rossi
(4 goals)

For these Games, the men competed in a 16-team tournament. Preliminary matches commenced on 7 August, the day before the Games' opening ceremony. The teams were grouped into four pools of four teams each for a round-robin preliminary round. The top two teams in each pool advanced to an eight-team single-elimination bracket.

The tournament was won by Argentina, who beat Nigeria 10 in the final, as part of a record streak of 12 consecutive wins in football competitions at the Summer Olympics (six wins in 2004, six wins in 2008).

Qualification

Countries of men's tournament

A National Olympic Committee may enter one men's team in football competitions.

Means of qualificationDateVenueBerthsQualified
Host nation 1 China PR
AFC Preliminary CompetitionFebruary – November 20073 Australia
 South Korea
 Japan
CAF Preliminary CompetitionSeptember 2006 – March 20083 Cameroon
 Ivory Coast
 Nigeria
CONCACAF Preliminary CompetitionAugust 2007 – March 2008 United States2 Honduras
 United States
2007 South American Youth Championship7–28 January 2007 Paraguay2 Brazil
 Argentina
OFC Preliminary Competition1–9 March 2008 Fiji1 New Zealand
2007 UEFA U-21 Championship10–23 June 2007 Netherlands4 Netherlands
 Serbia
 Belgium
 Italy
Total16

Squads

For the men's tournament, each nation submitted a squad of 18 players, 15 of whom had to be born on or after 1 January 1985, and three of whom could be overage players, by 23 July 2008.[1] A minimum of two goalkeepers (plus one optional alternate goalkeeper) had to be included in the squad.[1]

Match officials

On 22 April 2008, FIFA released the list of match referees that will officiate at the Olympics.[2]

Confederation Referee Assistants
AFC Khalil Al Ghamdi (Saudi Arabia) Mohammed Al Ghamdi (Saudi Arabia)
Hamdi Al Kadrie (Syria)
Abdullah Al Hilali (Oman) Khaled Al Allan (Bahrain)
Saleh Al Marzouqi (United Arab Emirates)
Masoud Moradi (Iran) Hassan Kamranifar (Iran)
Luay Subhi Adib (Iraq)
CAF Jerome Damon (South Africa) Enock Molefe (South Africa)
Célestin Ntagungira (Rwanda)
Badara Diatta (Senegal) Bechir Hassani (Tunisia)
Evarist Menkouande (Cameroon)
CONCACAF Roberto Moreno (Panama) Daniel Williamson (Panama)
Hairo Fuentes (Panama)
Jair Marrufo (United States) Kermit Quisenberry (United States)
Ricardo Morgan (Jamaica)
CONMEBOL Héctor Baldassi (Argentina) Ricardo Casas (Argentina)
Hernán Maidana (Argentina)
Pablo Pozo (Chile) Patricio Basualto (Chile)
Julio Díaz (Chile)
Martín Vázquez (Uruguay) Mauricio Espinosa (Uruguay)
Miguel Nievas (Uruguay)
OFC Michael Hester (New Zealand) Tevita Makasini (Tonga)
Michael Joseph (Vanuatu)
UEFA Thomas Einwaller (Austria) Roland Heim (Austria)
Norbert Schwab (Austria)
Viktor Kassai (Hungary) Gábor Erős (Hungary)
Tibor Vámos (Hungary)
Stéphane Lannoy (France) Eric Dansault (France)
Frédéric Cano (France)
Damir Skomina (Slovenia) Primož Arhar (Slovenia)
Marco Stancin (Slovenia)
Wolfgang Stark (Germany) Jan-Hendrik Salver (Germany)
Volker Wezel (Germany)

All times are China Standard Time (UTC+8).

Group stage

Group winners and runners-up advanced to the quarter-finals.

Group A

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Argentina 3 3 0 0 5 1 +4 9 Qualified for the quarterfinals
2  Ivory Coast 3 2 0 1 6 4 +2 6
3  Australia 3 0 1 2 1 3 2 1
4  Serbia 3 0 1 2 3 7 4 1
Source: [3]
Australia 1–1 Serbia
Zadkovich  69' Report Rajković  78'
Attendance: 36,184

Ivory Coast 1–2 Argentina
Cissé  53' Report Messi  43'
Acosta  86'
Attendance: 43,266

Argentina 1–0 Australia
Lavezzi  76' Report
Attendance: 38,182

Serbia 2–4 Ivory Coast
Mrdaković  16'
Rakić  90'
Report Cissé  3'
Rajković  24' (o.g.)
Kalou  70'
Gervinho  90+3'
Attendance: 38,320

Ivory Coast 1–0 Australia
Kalou  81' Report

Argentina 2–0 Serbia
Lavezzi  13' (pen.)
Buonanotte  84'
Report
Beijing Workers' Stadium, Beijing
Attendance: 53,668

Group B

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Nigeria 3 2 1 0 4 2 +2 7 Qualified for the quarterfinals
2  Netherlands 3 1 2 0 3 2 +1 5
3  United States 3 1 1 1 4 4 0 4
4  Japan 3 0 0 3 1 4 3 0
Source:
Japan 0–1 United States
Report Holden  47'

Netherlands 0–0 Nigeria
Report

Nigeria 2–1 Japan
Obinna  58'
Anichebe  74'
Report Toyoda  79'

United States 2–2 Netherlands
Kljestan  64'
Altidore  72'
Report Babel  16'
Sibon  90+3'

Netherlands 1–0 Japan
Sibon  73' (pen.) Report

Nigeria 2–1 United States
Isaac  39'
Obinna  79'
Report Kljestan  88' (pen.)
Beijing Workers' Stadium, Beijing
Attendance: 48,096

Group C

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Brazil 3 3 0 0 9 0 +9 9 Qualified for the quarterfinals
2  Belgium 3 2 0 1 3 1 +2 6
3  China PR 3 0 1 2 1 6 5 1
4  New Zealand 3 0 1 2 1 7 6 1
Source:
Brazil 1–0 Belgium
Hernanes  79' Report

China PR 1–1 New Zealand
Dong Fangzhuo  88' Report Brockie  53'

New Zealand 0–5 Brazil
Report Anderson  3'
Pato  33'
Ronaldinho  55', 61' (pen.)
Sóbis  90+3'

Belgium 2–0 China PR
Dembélé  8'
Mirallas  80'
Report

China PR 0–3 Brazil
Report Diego  18'
Thiago Neves  69', 73'

New Zealand 0–1 Belgium
Report Haroun  35'
Attendance: 45,202
Referee: Pablo Pozo (Chile)

Group D

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Italy 3 2 1 0 6 0 +6 7 Qualified for the quarterfinals
2  Cameroon 3 1 2 0 2 1 +1 5
3  South Korea 3 1 1 1 2 4 2 4
4  Honduras 3 0 0 3 0 5 5 0
Source:
Honduras 0–3 Italy
Report Giovinco  41'
Rossi  45' (pen.)
Acquafresca  52' (pen.)


Cameroon 1–0 Honduras
Mbia  74' Report

Italy 3–0 South Korea
Rossi  15'
Rocchi  32'
Montolivo  90'
Report

South Korea 1–0 Honduras
Kim Dong-jin  23' Report

Cameroon 0–0 Italy
Report

Knockout stage

  Quarter-finals Semi-finals Gold medal match
                           
  B1  Nigeria 2  
A2  Ivory Coast 0  
  B1  Nigeria 4  
  C2  Belgium 1  
D1  Italy 2
  C2  Belgium 3  
    B1  Nigeria 0
  A1  Argentina 1
  A1  Argentina (aet) 2  
B2  Netherlands 1  
  A1  Argentina 3 Bronze medal match
  C1  Brazil 0  
C1  Brazil (aet) 2 C2  Belgium 0
  D2  Cameroon 0   C1  Brazil 3

Quarter-finals

Brazil 2–0 (a.e.t.) Cameroon
Sóbis  101'
Marcelo  105'
Report

Italy 2–3 Belgium
Rossi  18' (pen.), 74' (pen.) Report Dembélé  23', 79'
Mirallas  45+2'
Beijing Workers' Stadium, Beijing
Attendance: 50,802

Argentina 2–1 (a.e.t.) Netherlands
Messi  14'
Di María  105'
Report Bakkal  36'

Nigeria 2–0 Ivory Coast
Odemwingie  44'
Obinna  82' (pen.)
Report

Semi-finals

Nigeria 4–1 Belgium
Adefemi  17'
Obasi  59', 72'
Okonkwo  78'
Report Ciman  88'
Attendance: 56,312
Referee: Pablo Pozo (Chile)

Argentina 3–0 Brazil
Agüero  52', 58'
Riquelme  76' (pen.)
Report
Beijing Workers' Stadium, Beijing
Attendance: 52,968

Bronze medal match

Belgium 0–3 Brazil
Report Diego  27'
 45', 90+2'
Attendance: 50,705

Gold medal match

Nigeria 0–1 Argentina
Report Di María  58'
Attendance: 89,102

Final ranking

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1  Argentina (ARG) 6 6 0 0 11 2 +9 18
2  Nigeria (NGR) 6 4 1 1 10 4 +6 13
3  Brazil (BRA) 6 5 0 1 14 3 +11 15
4  Belgium (BEL) 6 3 0 3 7 10 3 9
5  Italy (ITA) 4 2 1 1 8 3 +5 7
6  Ivory Coast (CIV) 4 2 0 2 6 6 0 6
7  Netherlands (NED) 4 1 2 1 4 4 0 5
8  Cameroon (CMR) 4 1 2 1 2 3 1 5
9  United States (USA) 3 1 1 1 4 4 0 4
10  South Korea (KOR) 3 1 1 1 2 4 2 4
11  Australia (AUS) 3 0 1 2 1 3 2 1
12  Serbia (SRB) 3 0 1 2 3 7 4 1
13  China (CHN) 3 0 1 2 1 6 5 1
14  New Zealand (NZL) 3 0 1 2 1 7 6 1
15  Japan (JPN) 3 0 0 3 1 4 3 0
16  Honduras (HON) 3 0 0 3 0 5 5 0
Source:

Statistics

Goalscorers

With four goals, Giuseppe Rossi of Italy was the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 75 goals were scored by 53 different players, with only one of them credited as own goal.

4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
Own goals

References

  1. Regulations of the Olympic Football Tournaments Archived 2008-02-27 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "List of Referees & Assistant Referees appointed for the Olympic Football Tournaments Beijing 2008 – (Men's tournament)" (PDF). FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 22 April 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  3. "2008 Summer Olympics Soccer Results - Beijing, China - ESPN". www.espn.com. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
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