Paris Olympics: New Zealand football teams drawn to play hosts France
Thursday, 21 March 2024
The draw for the Paris Olympics men’s and women’s football tournaments were conducted on Thursday.
The Football Ferns and Oly Whites both landed in groups containing host nation France.
The Ferns will also face reigning gold medallists Canada.
The Football Ferns and Oly Whites have both been drawn to play against hosts France at the Paris Olympics.
The New Zealand women have landed in group A alongside France, defending champions Canada and Women’s World Cup surprise package Colombia.
It’s an extremely tough group with France (3) and Canada (9) both ranked inside the top 10 in the world and the No. 23-ranked Colombia coming off a quarterfinal finish at last year’s World Cup.
But it could have been even worse with the Football Ferns avoiding World Cup winners Spain, who have been drawn in group C alongside Japan, the No. 1-ranked team from Africa and Brazil.
Group b will also be fiercely contested, containing United States, the No. 2-ranked team from Africa, Germany and Australia.
The top two teams from each group and the two best third-placed teams will advance to the knockout stages.
The Football Ferns have only made it out of their group at the Olympics once before, in London in 2012.
They beat Cameroon 3-1 to finish third behind Great Britain and Brazil before losing to the US in the quarterfinals.
The New Zealand under-23 men have also been drawn in group A and face an arguably tougher road to the knockout stages.
They will meet France, the United States and the winner of a playoff between teams from Asia and Africa.
The Oly Whites created history at the Tokyo Olympics when they beat South Korea and drew with Romania to reach the quarterfinals for the first time.
They were eliminated after losing to Japan in a penalty shootout.
France will be one of the favourites to win the men’s tournament, able to draw on a pool of established professionals from some of Europe’s biggest leagues.
The top two men’s teams from each group will qualify for the quarterfinals.
Paris Olympics
Women’s football tournament
Group A: France, Canada, Colombia, New Zealand.
Group B: United States, CAF 2, Germany, Australia.
Group C: Spain, Japan, CAF 1, Brazil.
Men’s football tournament
Group A: France, United States, AFC v CAF playoff winner, New Zealand.
Group B: Argentina, Morocco, AFC 3, Ukraine.
Group C: AFC 2, Spain, Egypt, Dominican Republic.
Group D: AFC 1, Paraguay, Mali, Israel.