Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's tournament

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.

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 →

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".^[1] Juan Román Riquelme and Javier Mascherano also received special mentions.^[2]

Qualification

Countries of men's tournament

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

Main article: Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's qualification

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

Further information: Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics § 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	Beijing Qinhuangdao Shanghai Shenyang Tianjin Location of the host cities of the men's football tournament of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Chaoyang		Xuhui
Beijing National Stadium	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

Main article: Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's team 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.^[3] A minimum of two goalkeepers (plus one optional alternate goalkeeper) had to be included in the squad.^[3]

Match officials

On 22 April 2008, FIFA released the list of match referees that will officiate at the Olympics.^[4]

Confederation	Referee	Assistants
AFC	Khalil Al Ghamdi (Saudi Arabia)	Mohammed Al Ghamdi (Saudi Arabia) Hamdi Al Kadrie (Syria)
	Abdullah Al Hilali (Oman)	Khaled Al Allan (Bahrain) Saleh Al Marzouqi (United Arab Emirates)
	Masoud Moradi (Iran)	Hassan Kamranifar (Iran) Luay Subhi Adib (Iraq)
CAF	Jerome Damon (South Africa)	Enock Molefe (South Africa) Célestin Ntagungira (Rwanda)
	Badara Diatta (Senegal)	Bechir Hassani (Tunisia) Evarist Menkouande (Cameroon)
CONCACAF	Roberto Moreno (Panama)	Daniel Williamson (Panama) Hairo Fuentes (Panama)
	Jair Marrufo (United States)	Kermit Quisenberry (United States) Ricardo Morgan (Jamaica)
CONMEBOL	Héctor Baldassi (Argentina)	Ricardo Casas (Argentina) Hernán Maidana (Argentina)
	Pablo Pozo (Chile)	Patricio Basualto (Chile) Julio Díaz (Chile)
	Martín Vázquez (Uruguay)	Mauricio Espinosa (Uruguay) Miguel Nievas (Uruguay)
OFC	Michael Hester (New Zealand)	Tevita Makasini (Tonga) Michael Joseph (Vanuatu)
UEFA	Thomas Einwaller (Austria)	Roland Heim (Austria) Norbert Schwab (Austria)
	Viktor Kassai (Hungary)	Gábor Erős (Hungary) Tibor Vámos (Hungary)
	Stéphane Lannoy (France)	Eric Dansault (France) Frédéric Cano (France)
	Damir Skomina (Slovenia)	Primož Arhar (Slovenia) Marco Stancin (Slovenia)
	Wolfgang Stark (Germany)	Jan-Hendrik Salver (Germany) Volker Wezel (Germany)

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.

Pot 1: Asia	Pot 2: Africa and Oceania	Pot 3: Europe	Pot 4: Americas
China (assigned to C1)  Australia  Japan  South Korea	Cameroon (assigned to Group D)  Ivory Coast  Nigeria  New Zealand	Netherlands (assigned to Group B)  Belgium  Italy  Serbia	Argentina (assigned to Group A)  Brazil  Honduras  United States

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

Source: ^[5]

7 August 2008

17:00

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

Shanghai Stadium, Shanghai

Attendance: 36,184

Referee: Jerome Damon (South Africa)

7 August 2008

19:45

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

Shanghai Stadium, Shanghai

Attendance: 43,266

Referee: Wolfgang Stark (Germany)

---

10 August 2008

17:00

Argentina	1–0	Australia
Lavezzi 76'	Report

Shanghai Stadium, Shanghai

Attendance: 38,182

Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary)

10 August 2008

19:45

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

Shanghai Stadium, Shanghai

Attendance: 38,320

Referee: Roberto Moreno (Panama)

---

13 August 2008

19:45

Ivory Coast	1–0	Australia
Kalou 81'	Report

Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium, Tianjin

Attendance: 50,437

Referee: Jair Marrufo (United States)

13 August 2008

19:45

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

Beijing Workers' Stadium, Beijing

Attendance: 53,668

Referee: Abdullah Al Hilali (Oman)

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

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

7 August 2008

17:00

Japan	0–1	United States
	Report	Holden 47'

Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium, Tianjin

Attendance: 57,102

Referee: Badara Diatta (Senegal)

7 August 2008

19:45

Netherlands	0–0	Nigeria
	Report

Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium, Tianjin

Attendance: 52,390

Referee: Pablo Pozo (Chile)

---

10 August 2008

17:00

Nigeria	2–1	Japan
Obinna 58' Anichebe 74'	Report	Toyoda 79'

Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium, Tianjin

Attendance: 42,592

Referee: Masoud Moradi (Iran)

10 August 2008

19:45

United States	2–2	Netherlands
Kljestan 64' Altidore 72'	Report	Babel 16' Sibon 90+3'

Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium, Tianjin

Attendance: 45,016

Referee: Michael Hester (New Zealand)

---

13 August 2008

17:00

Netherlands	1–0	Japan
Sibon 73' (pen.)	Report

Shenyang Olympic Stadium, Shenyang

Attendance: 38,790

Referee: Héctor Baldassi (Argentina)

13 August 2008

17:00

Nigeria	2–1	United States
Isaac 39' Obinna 79'	Report	Kljestan 88' (pen.)

Beijing Workers' Stadium, Beijing

Attendance: 48,096

Referee: Wolfgang Stark (Germany)

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

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
(H) Hosts

7 August 2008

17:00

Brazil	1–0	Belgium
Hernanes 79'	Report

Shenyang Olympic Stadium, Shenyang

Attendance: 39,661

Referee: Khalil Al Ghamdi (Saudi Arabia)

7 August 2008

19:45

China	1–1	New Zealand
Dong Fangzhuo 88'	Report	Brockie 53'

Shenyang Olympic Stadium, Shenyang

Attendance: 41,407

Referee: Martín Vázquez (Uruguay)

---

10 August 2008

17:00

New Zealand	0–5	Brazil
	Report	Anderson 3' Pato 33' Ronaldinho 55', 61' (pen.) Sóbis 90+3'

Shenyang Olympic Stadium, Shenyang

Attendance: 44,951

Referee: Stéphane Lannoy (France)

10 August 2008

19:45

Belgium	2–0	China
Dembélé 8' Mirallas 80'	Report

Shenyang Olympic Stadium, Shenyang

Attendance: 45,756

Referee: Héctor Baldassi (Argentina)

---

13 August 2008

19:45

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

Qinhuangdao Olympic Sports Center Stadium, Qinhuangdao

Attendance: 38,790

Referee: Jerome Damon (South Africa)

13 August 2008

19:45

New Zealand	0–1	Belgium
	Report	Haroun 35'

Shanghai Stadium, Shanghai

Attendance: 45,202

Referee: Pablo Pozo (Chile)

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

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

7 August 2008

17:00

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

Qinhuangdao Olympic Sports Center Stadium, Qinhuangdao

Attendance: 21,680

Referee: Damir Skomina (Slovenia)

7 August 2008

19:45

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

Qinhuangdao Olympic Sports Center Stadium, Qinhuangdao

Attendance: 21,943

Referee: Jair Marrufo (United States)

---

10 August 2008

17:00

Cameroon	1–0	Honduras
Mbia 74'	Report

Qinhuangdao Olympic Sports Center Stadium, Qinhuangdao

Attendance: 28,657

Referee: Abdullah Al Hilali (Oman)

10 August 2008

19:45

Italy	3–0	South Korea
Rossi 15' Rocchi 32' Montolivo 90'	Report

Qinhuangdao Olympic Sports Center Stadium, Qinhuangdao

Attendance: 29,455

Referee: Thomas Einwaller (Austria)

---

13 August 2008

17:00

South Korea	1–0	Honduras
Kim Dong-jin 23'	Report

Shanghai Stadium, Shanghai

Attendance: 34,160

Referee: Michael Hester (New Zealand)

13 August 2008

17:00

Cameroon	0–0	Italy
	Report

Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium, Tianjin

Attendance: 47,307

Referee: Martín Vázquez (Uruguay)

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 (a.e.t.)

2

B2

Netherlands

1

A1

Argentina

3

Bronze medal match

C1

Brazil

0

C1

Brazil (a.e.t.)

2

C2

Belgium

0

D2

Cameroon

0

C1

Brazil

3

Quarter-finals

16 August 2008

18:00

Brazil	2–0 (a.e.t.)	Cameroon
Sóbis 101' Marcelo 105'	Report

Shenyang Olympic Stadium, Shenyang

Attendance: 41,043

Referee: Damir Skomina (Slovenia)

---

16 August 2008

18:00

Italy	2–3	Belgium
Rossi 18' (pen.), 74' (pen.)	Report	Dembélé 23', 79' Mirallas 45+2'

Beijing Workers' Stadium, Beijing

Attendance: 50,802

Referee: Héctor Baldassi (Argentina)

---

16 August 2008

21:00

Argentina	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Netherlands
Messi 14' Di María 105'	Report	Bakkal 36'

Shanghai Stadium, Shanghai

Attendance: 51,366

Referee: Jair Marrufo (United States)

---

16 August 2008

21:00

Nigeria	2–0	Ivory Coast
Odemwingie 44' Obinna 82' (pen.)	Report

Qinhuangdao Olympic Sports Center Stadium, Qinhuangdao

Attendance: 28,944

Referee: Masoud Moradi (Iran)

Semi-finals

19 August 2008

18:00

Nigeria	4–1	Belgium
Adefemi 17' Obasi 59', 72' Okonkwo 78'	Report	Ciman 88'

Shanghai Stadium, Shanghai

Attendance: 56,312

Referee: Pablo Pozo (Chile)

---

19 August 2008

21:00

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

Beijing Workers' Stadium, Beijing

Attendance: 52,968

Referee: Martín Vázquez (Uruguay)

Bronze medal match

22 August 2008

19:00

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

Shanghai Stadium, Shanghai

Attendance: 50,705

Referee: Thomas Einwaller (Austria)

Gold medal match

Main article: Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's tournament – final

23 August 2008

12:00

Nigeria	0–1	Argentina
	Report	Di María 58'

Beijing National Stadium, Beijing

Attendance: 89,102

Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary)

Source for cards:^[6]

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

Source: IOC

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)