Photo Credit: Getty Images
France maintained a perfect record at their home Olympic Games by defeating New Zealand 3-0, comfortably securing their passage to the quarter-final in the process. Thierry Henry made nine changes to the team that beat Mali but his side still looked imperious during the early stages, with the incoming Rayan Cherki taking control.
Les Bleus’ number 18 glided up the pitch and unleashed the match’s first shot eight minutes in before Arnaud Kalimuendo’s follow-up was blocked. Cherki caused chaos again to help France open the scoring 10 minutes later, as Joe Bell’s tackle on him saw the ball bounce fortuitously off Finn Surman to Jean-Philippe Mateta who left nothing to chance with a delightful finish.
Desire Doue embodied the confidence gained from that goal by cutting inside and hitting a strike from range, even if the effort was comfortably denied by Alex Paulsen. New Zealand still showed that they were far from out of the contest with Ben Waine, Sarpreet Singh and Michael Boxall seeing shots blocked before the latter headed over from a corner.
Despite the tempo slowing down following a cooling break, Cherki still had moments where he dazzled while Andy Diouf smashed an ambitious effort agonizingly over the crossbar. Les Bleus looked flat after the break and were offered a warning by Matthew Garbett’s clean strike fizzing wide.
There were eventually signs that things could come together again for the hosts as Cherki’s strike forced a determined block from Tyler Bindon, but there wasn’t enough to satisfy the manager who turned to Michael Olise and Maghnes Akliouche shortly after the hour mark.
That decision brought extra urgency and a second arrived swiftly, as Surman’s tackle on Diouf sent the ball trickling towards Doue, who coolly passed the ball home. Doue saw a shot blocked moments later but Kalimuendo followed up to add some extra gloss to the score line, as France extended their unbeaten run to eight matches and set up a tantalizing contest against Argentina to maintain hopes of their second-ever Olympics triumph, with their only previous gold coming at Los Angeles 1984.
In contrast, New Zealand were knocked out following two consecutive defeats and were denied a late consolation as Obed Nkambadio superbly saved Lachlan Bayliss’ audacious attempt.
