Olympic Football Predictions & Betting Tips

This page is dedicated to bringing you the best Olympic Football predictions as we keep our finger on the pulse of the fast moving, slightly quirky tournament that forms part of the Paris Olympic Games.

We are now rapidly approaching the conclusion of what has been a rather enthralling Olympic Games with some big moments both on the football field and beyond. We’re very much focused on the football here though and there are four more matches to come with drama close to being guaranteed across the next couple of days as medals are on the line. First up we have the Men’s Bronze medal match, which is an all-African encounter between Egypt and Morocco. It’s fair to say both have given a really good account of themselves in France this summer and we are guaranteed a first African football medal since 2016 when Nigeria finished third. The match kicks-off at 16:00 BST on August 8th. That match up is followed by the equivalent fixture in the Women’s competition at 14:00 on the 9th; this game is a little bit of a surprise with Spain facing Germany. The prospect of the Spanish Women ending Paris 2024 without a football medal felt pretty unlikely at the start of the Games but it could well happen. From there on out it will be all about who takes Gold. At 17:00 on Friday August 9th, host nation France entertain Spain in what should be a high-quality match up. France are yet to taste defeat at this tournament and have only conceded the one goal, which you feel them in good stead with the home crowd behind them as well. That leaves just the Women’s final. Brazil are the surprise package here having eliminated Spain in the semi-finals. They’ll have a job on their hands to take another scalp here though with USA very much up there as the best women’s side in the world. The Women’s Gold medal game starts at 16:00 on August 10th.

Olympic Games football format

There are two different football competitions at the Olympics – Men’s and Women’s. Whilst the two follow a very similar format, there are a couple of differences that are worth being aware of. Before we come into the differences, it’s also really important to note that Olympic football gets underway before the main Olympics. The action starts on July 24th, two days before the opening ceremony owing to the number of games that have to be played, with the final game played on August 10th.

Women’s Olympic football

There will be 12 nations taking part in the Women’s side of the Olympic football in Paris. They are initially split into three groups of four and will avoid geographical neighbours owing to seeding pots. Each group plays the other nations in their group once with a maximum of nine points up for grabs. Eight teams advance to the knockout stage of the competitions; this will be the top two sides from each group plus the two best placed third teams – similar to the process followed during the recent European Championship with goal difference proving the separating factor in the event of any ties. From there, the tournament becomes a straight knockout competition with extra time and penalties used to determine a winner of ties when drawing at 90 minutes. This effectively gives us a quarter-final, semi-final and final plus a third-placed playoff match with the latter two games used to decide Gold, Silver and Bronze medals.

Men’s Olympic football

As touched on, the men’s competition is very similar to that of the Women’s format we’ve just detailed above but with two key differences. The first is the makeup of the squads. In the Women’s game, the squads are open as is the case in normal international football. In the Men’s game, Olympic teams have to be made up of players under the age of 23-years-old, or more specifically players born after 1 January 2001. Each nation is allowed three exceptions to this rule. The second variation on Olympic football format is in the group stage. There are an additional four nations competing and therefore we start the tournament with four groups of four teams (rather than three groups). This means that only the top two nations from each group qualify to the last eight; there is no qualification for the best-placed third teams in the Men’s tournament.

Olympic football predictions: Who will win medals?

Outright betting is often a big market in football and that is likely to be the case with the Olympics too. Our three picks to scoop gold are detailed below.

Men’s Olympic football outright betting – group stage

For the Men’s tournament it’s hard to look past France as the favourites. Not only are they a talented squad but they also have home advantage too, which will be huge in this type of tournament. With USA, Guinea and New Zealand in their group, they’ll be a shoo-in for the knockout stages. In Group B, Argentina are the obvious pick to advance into the last eight. Admittedly, their overall squad will be weaker owing to the under 23 rule but they’re currently the number one ranked side in the world. Morocco, Ukraine and Iraq round that group out with Morocco likely to be the side to join them in the quarter-final. Spain are the standout name in Group C. Their squad will be very different from that has impressed at Euro 2024 but they’ve got a lot of La Liga level players in their ranks still. The competition in their group is weak too. Egypt are the second place pick for us ahead of Uzbekistan and Dominican Republic.

Japan, Paraguay, Mali and Israel make up the last group, Group D, and it’s the former two that feel likely to progress out of the group stages. We simply can’t see either of those sides threatening the medal places though.

Women’s Olympic football outright betting – group stage

Like with the Men’s tournament, it’s hard not to rank France among the favourites to go all the way – albeit we think they’re less likely to win Gold than their male counterparts. A big part of the reason for that is down to the strength USA and Spain bring in the Women’s game. As for group betting, France and Canada look like they teams to beat in Group A with the host nation a good bet to finish top of that pool. Colombia and New Zealand round out the group with the former perhaps fancying a shot at being one of the third placed teams to qualify. In Group B, it’s all about USA with Germany likely to follow them. Australia and Zambia are also in the mix but, actually, if pressed, we think this will be the group that only sees two teams progress. The third and final group is surely going to see Nigeria finish bottom with Spain our pick to top the group followed by Japan and Brazil – probably in that order.

Olympic football FAQ

How many teams are in the Olympic football tournament? There are 16 Men’s teams and 12 Women’s team competing in the 2024 Olympic Football tournament. When does the Olympic football start? The Olympic Football begins on July 24th, two days prior to the official start of the Olympics. Where is the Olympic football played? Despite being the Paris Olympics, the football tournament is played in seven different venues – Stade de Marseille, Stade de Lyon, Stade de Bordeaux, Stade de Nice, Stade Geoffroy-Guichard in St Etienne, Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes and Parc Des Princes in host city Paris. Who are the pre-tournament favourites to win gold in the Olympic football? France are favourites in the Men’s tournament with USA the Women’s favoured pick as per the bookies odds.