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2008 Men's Olympic Football Tournament

Tournament details
Host country	China
Dates	7–23 August
Teams	16 (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 played	32
Goals scored	75 (2.34 per match)
Attendance	1,404,254 (43,883 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Giuseppe Rossi (4 goals)
← 2004 2012 →

Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Qualification
	men	women
Tournament
	men	women
Squads
	men	women
v t e

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 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.

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 1–0 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).

Despite the absence of an official best player award, the FIFA website highlighted Lionel Messi's campaign by stating that he "posed defenders more problems than anyone else in the tournament". Juan Román Riquelme and Javier Mascherano also received special mentions.

Qualification

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

Means of qualification	Date	Venue	Berths	Qualified
Host nation			1	China
AFC Preliminary Competition	February – November 2007	–	3	Australia  Japan  South Korea
CAF Preliminary Competition	September 2006 – March 2008	–	3	Cameroon  Ivory Coast  Nigeria
CONCACAF Preliminary Competition	August 2007 – March 2008	United States	2	Honduras  United States
2007 South American Youth Championship	7–28 January 2007	Paraguay	2	Brazil  Argentina
OFC Preliminary Competition	1–9 March 2008	Fiji	1	New Zealand
2007 UEFA U-21 Championship	10–23 June 2007	Netherlands	4	Netherlands  Serbia  Belgium  Italy
Total			16

Venues

Six venues were used during the tournament, four of them outside of Beijing at cities around China. Beijing National Stadium hosted the final.

Beijing		Shanghai	BeijingQinhuangdaoShanghaiShenyangTianjinclass=notpageimage| Location of host cities of the tournament.
Chaoyang		Xuhui
Beijing National Stadium	Beijing Workers' Stadium	Shanghai Stadium
Capacity: 91,000	Capacity: 70,161	Capacity: 80,000
Shenyang	Tianjin	Qinhuangdao
Hunnan	Nankai	Haigang
Shenyang Olympic Stadium	Tianjin Olympic Centre Stadium	Qinhuangdao Olympic Sports Centre Stadium
Capacity: 60,000	Capacity: 60,000	Capacity: 33,000

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. A minimum of two goalkeepers (plus one optional alternate goalkeeper) had to be included in the squad.

Match officials

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

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

Seeding

The draw for the tournament took place on 20 April 2008. Argentina, the Netherlands, China and Cameroon were seeded for the draw and placed into groups A–D, respectively. The remaining teams were drawn from four pots with teams from the same region kept apart.

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

Australia	1–1	Serbia
Zadkovich 69'	Report	Rajković 78'

Ivory Coast	1–2	Argentina
Cissé 53'	Report	Messi 43' Acosta 86'

Argentina	1–0	Australia
Lavezzi 76'	Report

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

Ivory Coast	1–0	Australia
Kalou 81'	Report

Argentina	2–0	Serbia
Lavezzi 13' (pen.) Buonanotte 84'	Report

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

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.)

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 (H)	3	0	1	2	1	6	−5	1
4	New Zealand	3	0	1	2	1	7	−6	1

Brazil	1–0	Belgium
Hernanes 79'	Report

China	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
Dembélé 8' Mirallas 80'	Report

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

New Zealand	0–1	Belgium
	Report	Haroun 35'

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

Honduras	0–3	Italy
	Report	Giovinco 41' Rossi 45' (pen.) Acquafresca 52' (pen.)

South Korea	1–1	Cameroon
Park Chu-young 68'	Report	Mandjeck 81'

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'

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'

Argentina	3–0	Brazil
Agüero 52', 58' Riquelme 76' (pen.)	Report

Bronze medal match

Belgium	0–3	Brazil
	Report	Diego 27' Jô 45', 90+2'

Gold medal match

Nigeria	0–1	Argentina
	Report	Di María 58'

Source for cards:

Team details

Nigeria GK 1 Ambruse Vanzekin DF 5 Dele Adeleye DF 4 Onyekachi Apam  68' DF 2 Chibuzor Okonkwo DF 13 Olubayo Adefemi MF 8 Sani Kaita MF 12 Ajilore Oluwafemi MF 11 Solomon Okoronkwo  64' FW 9 Victor Obinna  51' FW 14 Peter Odemwingie FW 10 Isaac Promise (c)  70' Substitutes: FW 16 Victor Anichebe  64' MF 17 Emmanuel Ekpo  70' Manager: Samson Siasia Argentina GK 18 Sergio Romero DF 4 Pablo Zabaleta DF 2 Ezequiel Garay DF 12 Nicolás Pareja DF 3 Luciano Monzón  81' MF 11 Ángel Di María  88' MF 14 Javier Mascherano MF 5 Fernando Gago MF 10 Juan Román Riquelme (c)  82' FW 15 Lionel Messi  90' FW 16 Sergio Agüero  79' Substitutes: MF 7 José Sosa  79' MF 8 Ever Banega  88' FW 9 Ezequiel Lavezzi  90' Manager: Sergio Batista

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

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

• Giuseppe Rossi

3 goals

• Mousa Dembélé
• Victor Obinna

2 goals

• Sergio Agüero
• Ángel Di María
• Ezequiel Lavezzi
• Lionel Messi
• Kevin Mirallas
• Diego
• Jô
• Thiago Neves
• Ronaldinho
• Rafael Sóbis
• Sekou Cissé
• Salomon Kalou
• Gerald Sibon
• Chinedu Obasi
• Sacha Kljestan

1 goal

• Lautaro Acosta
• Diego Buonanotte
• Juan Román Riquelme
• Ruben Zadkovich
• Laurent Ciman
• Faris Haroun
• Anderson
• Hernanes
• Marcelo
• Alexandre Pato
• Georges Mandjeck
• Stéphane Mbia
• Dong Fangzhuo
• Robert Acquafresca
• Sebastian Giovinco
• Riccardo Montolivo
• Tommaso Rocchi
• Gervinho
• Yohei Toyoda
• Kim Dong-jin
• Park Chu-young
• Ryan Babel
• Otman Bakkal
• Jeremy Brockie
• Olubayo Adefemi
• Victor Anichebe
• Peter Odemwingie
• Chibuzor Okonkwo
• Isaac Promise
• Miljan Mrdaković
• Slobodan Rajković
• Đorđe Rakić
• Jozy Altidore
• Stuart Holden

Own goals

• Slobodan Rajković (playing against Ivory Coast)

References

1. "Olympic Football Tournaments Beijing 2008". FIFA. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
2. "Messi and Argentina grab gold in Beijing". FIFA. 23 August 2020. Archived from the original on 21 January 2022. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
3. ^ Regulations of the Olympic Football Tournaments Archived 27 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine
4. "List of Referees & Assistant Referees appointed for the Olympic Football Tournaments Beijing 2008 – (Men's tournament)" (PDF). FIFA. 22 April 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 July 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
5. "2008 Summer Olympics Soccer Results - Beijing, China - ESPN". www.espn.com. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
6. "Torneo Olímpico de Fútbol • 23 Aug 2008 • 01:00 • National Stadium (Bird's Nest)". FIFA (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 27 December 2022. Retrieved 21 February 2023.

• "Sports Competition Schedule". Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games. 17 April 2006. Archived from the original on 10 August 2006. Retrieved 10 August 2006.
• "Football". International Olympic Committee. 2006. Retrieved 10 August 2006.
• "Programme of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, Beijing 2008" (PDF). International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 August 2006. Retrieved 10 August 2006.

External links

• Olympic Football Tournaments Beijing 2008 – Men at FIFA
• RSSSF Summary
• FIFA Technical Report

v t e Football at the Summer Olympics
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Related topics	List of medalists Records men women Hat-tricks men List of venues List of official match balls
Category Commons

• Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's tournament
• Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics
• Men's football at the Summer Olympics
• International association football competitions hosted by China