Olympic soccer bracket: Updated schedule, results for Paris 2024 men's knockout games

Dom Farrell

Olympic soccer bracket: Updated schedule, results for Paris 2024 men's knockout games image

The men's Olympic football tournament has reached the business end with the knockout stages kicking off in France in August 2.

Much-fancied Argentina were stunned in their first match, going down 2-1 to Morocco, but Javier Mascherano's side recovered with back-to-back wins to book a mouth-watering quarterfinal showdown with France.

Les Bleus joined Japan in compiling a 100 percent group-stage record. The Samurai Blue's arguably dubious reward is a showdown with Spain, who have Euro 2024 winners Fermin Lopez and Alex Baena in their squad.

Here's a full rundown of the men's Olympic football knockout bracket, mapping out the path to Olympic glory.

MORE: What happened in Argentina vs. Morocco Olympic soccer match?

KNOCKOUT STAGE SCHEDULE: Quarterfinals Semifinals | BronzeFinal 

Olympic men's soccer 2024 knockout stage bracket: Fixtures, results and schedule

Kickoff times listed below are in local time (CET). The UK (BST) is 1 hour behind Paris, the US/Canada (ET) 6 hours behind, India (IST) 3.5 hours ahead and Australia (AEDT) 8 hours ahead.

For example, a 3 p.m. CET kickoff translates to 2 p.m. BST / 9 a.m. ET / 6.30 p.m. IST / 11 p.m. AEDT.

Quarterfinals

DateTime (CET)MatchLocation
Fri, Aug. 23 p.m.Morocco 4-0 USAParc des Princes
(Paris, France)
Fri, Aug. 25 p.m.Spain 3-0 JapanGroupama Stadium
(Lyon, France)
Fri, Aug. 27 p.m.Egypt 1(5)-1(4) ParaguayOrange Velodrome
(Marseille, France)
Fri, Aug. 29 p.m.France 1-0 ArgentinaMatmut Atlantique
(Bordeaux, France)

Semifinals

DateTime (CET)MatchLocation
Mon, Aug. 56 p.m.Morocco 1-2 SpainGroupama Stadium
(Lyon, France)
Mon, Aug. 59 p.m.France 3-1 EgyptOrange Velodrome
(Marseille, France)

Third Place

DateTime (CET)MatchLocation
Thu, Aug. 85 p.m.Morocco 6-0 EgyptStade de la Beaujoire 
(Nantes, France)

Final

DateTime (CET)MatchLocation
Fri, Aug. 96 p.m.Spain 5-3 FranceParc des Princes
(Paris, France)

MORE: All-time medal winners in Olympics soccer

What are the men's eligibility rules for Olympic football?

For men's football at the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules state only players under the age of 23 can be selected, with the exception of a maximum of three over-23 players permitted in each squads.

This means for the Paris Olympics, 15 of the players in final squads must be born on or after January 1, 2001.

When the rule was first introduced in 1984, players who had appeared at the World Cup were not allowed to play, though it was relaxed slightly in 1992 to allow those who had played less than 90 minutes at a World Cup to compete.

Why are the eligibility rules for men's and women's Olympic football different?

When the men's tournament first allowed professional players in 1984, FIFA was concerned this would allow the Olympics to rival and eventually overtake the World Cup in significance.

As a result, a compromise was reached that forced European and South American sides — football's strongholds — to send those who had not played in a World Cup before, whilst allowing all other nations to field any players.

In addition, as the Olympics is outside a FIFA-sanctioned international window, clubs are not compelled to release players to be available for their national side, meaning many of the top stars of world football do not play at the Olympics.

Dom Farrell

Dom Farrell Photo

Dom is the senior content producer for Sporting News UK. He previously worked as fan brands editor for Manchester City at Reach Plc. Prior to that, he built more than a decade of experience in the sports journalism industry, primarily for the Stats Perform and Press Association news agencies. Dom has covered major football events on location, including the entirety of Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup in Paris and St Petersburg respectively, along with numerous high-profile Premier League, Champions League and England international matches. Cricket and boxing are his other major sporting passions and he has covered the likes of Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Wladimir Klitschko, Gennadiy Golovkin and Vasyl Lomachenko live from ringside.