Olympic Games – A title worth all the gold in the world. Two days before the end of the Paralympic Games, this Saturday, September 7, at 8 p.m., the French blind football team has the opportunity to win the first Paralympic gold medal in its history, by beating Argentina in the final. An unmissable match to avenge the honor of Didier Deschamps’ Blues beaten by Argentina, in 2022, in the World Cup final in Qatar.
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Beyond winning their first gold medal twelve years after the silver obtained at the London Games, the blind football team hopes to do better than the “choosing”. Paralympic athletes all remember the frustration felt during the French defeat at the World Cup: ” this disappointment as we believed in the 2018-2022 double”, mentions Tidiane Diakité, with theTeam. When Fabrice Morgado remembers a crazy match: “ We had a monster, Kylian (Mbappé), and then on the other, there was (Lionel) Messi. »
An unprecedented podium
This time, the French, led by their number 10 Frédéric Villeroux described as ” the best player in the world » by their coach Toussaint Akpweh and pushed by the Parisian public, have the opportunity to create a sensation. We can go get this gold medal with the public and for the public. And to avenge the able-bodied!” Fabrice Morgado exclaims again, to L’Équipe.
The 2022 European champions are not, however, favourites after their eighth and final place in Tokyo. But they have been gaining momentum since the start of the tournament and can save the honour of team sports by avoiding zero points at these Paralympic Games.
The podium will be unprecedented at the foot of the Eiffel Tower on Saturday night, since the winner of the tournament will not be Brazil. The Seleçao had won every edition of the competition since blind football was added to the Paralympic programme in Athens in 2004. But the Brazilians fell to their great rivals Argentina in the semi-finals, who will be looking to improve on their second-place finish in Tokyo three years ago.
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Paralympic Games: Phryge sets the tone for the anthem in front of the cauldron, three days before the end of the Games
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