France U23 3-0 United States U23: Lacazette & Olise score, Badé adds a header

Hosts France recovered from a slow start to ease to a 3-0 opening win over the United States at Paris 2024 on Wednesday.

Match Report

There has been plenty of excitement around the home nation heading into the men's Olympic tournament, with coach Thierry Henry selecting a strong squad even with superstars like Kylian Mbappe absent.

Yet it took more than an hour for the match in Marseille to spark into life, and even then France were reliant on a moment of magic from captain Alexandre Lacazette.

The United States were the better side up until Lacazette's breakthrough goal, with Djordje Mihailovic thundering against the crossbar shortly before the veteran striker went up the other end and picked out the bottom-left corner.

A frantic spell followed in which France twice could have been pegged back, grateful first to Guillaume Restes for a superb save from Paxten Aaronson and then to the goal frame as John Tolkin headed against the post.

Instead, a second goal against the run of play settled the nerves in the stands as Bayern Munich new boy Michael Olise curled a fine finish around Patrick Schulte from outside the box.

And Loic Bade added further gloss with a header from a Joris Chotard corner five minutes from time, while Griffin Yow saw a late consolation goal struck off for offside.

Data Debrief: Belated home comfort for Les Bleus

On paper, the gulf between the two teams was evident in the scoreline, but for those home fans in Marseille who grew audibly agitated early in the second half, this was far from easy viewing.

Although France finished with three goals, they only created chances worth 0.43 expected goals (xG). The strikes by Lacazette and Olise were inspired individual efforts rather than the result of fine team play.

Winning gold as the hosts is not easy in this event – only four nations (Great Britain in 1908, Belgium in 1920, Spain in 1992 and Brazil in 2016) have done so previously in 27 attempts – but more will be expected of Henry's outfit going forward.

Line-ups

France U23 XI: Lacazette, Jean-Philippe Mateta, Loïc Badé, Enzo Millot, Castello Lukeba, Joris Chotard, Manu Koné, Michael Olise, Adrien Truffert, Kiliann Sildillia, Guillaume Restes

Subs: Muinga, Cherki, Obed Nkambadio, Bradley Locko, Maghnes Akliouche, Désiré Doué, Soungoutou Magassa

United States U23 XI: Walker Zimmerman, Miles Robinson, Djordje Mihailovic, Gianluca Busio, Patrick Schulte, John Tolkin, Nathan Harriel, Kevin Paredes, Tanner Tessmann, Paxten Aaronson, Duncan McGuire

Subs: Taylor Booth, Griffin Yow, Gabriel Slonina, Maximilian Dietz, Caleb Wiley, Jack McGlynn, Benja Cremaschi