2008 Men’s Olympic Quarter-Final Highlights, and Semi-Final Line-up

Nigeria 2-0 Cote d’Ivoire


There was always going to be an African team in the semis, and it’s going to be Nigeria. Peter Odemwingie opened the scoring just before halftime (above) and Victor Obinna scored a second half pen to make it official.

Argentina 2-1 Netherlands (after extra time)


Leo Messi made it 1-0 when he rounded Piet Velthuizen and banged it home. And to think he nearly wasn’t here.

Otman Bakkal equalized for the Dutch after Evander Sno’s shot had deflected off Javier Mascherano.

In extra time Messi (him again) freed Angel di Maria with a beauty of a through ball, and the Benfica man scored a 105th minute winner.

Read the Argentina WCB LiveBlog of the game, and Argentina fans reactions, here.

Brazil 2-0 Cameroon (after extra time)


Bruno remains unimpressed with Brazil, and Cameroon held them at 0-0 for 90 minutes. But 11 minutes into extra time Rafael Sobis was on the end of a long Diego through ball to make it 1-0. No video of that, sorry, but we do have video of Brazil’s second, which Marcelo somehow scored with his knee/thigh in the 105th.

Belgium 3-2 Italy


This started badly for Belgium, Thomas Vermaelen being sent off for pulling down Robert Acquafresca in the area, and Giuseppe Rossi scoring from the spot. Moussa Dembele equalized for Belgium, with a header that only just crossed the line and Kevin Mirallas made it 2-1 just before half-time with a smart turn and shot.

Rossi scored a second from the spot to equalize in the 74th, but Belgium made it 3-2 with another goal from Dembele in the 79th. Unfortunately for Italy, this is where it all went wrong. Keeper Viviano was too aggressive in trying to get the back to the center cirlce for the restart and got himself a red card, ruining Italy’s one man advantage and allowing Belgium to hold out for the last 10 minutes.

Here’s what the semi-finals look like:

Nigeria vs Belgium
Argentina vs Brazil

Both games take place on Tuesday, August 19th. And unless you’re Belgian or Nigerian, I think it’s safe to say that Argentina vs Brazil is the game to watch.

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