The women’s olympics 2024 Group C teams consist of Spain, Brazil, Japan and Nigeria.
As defending world champions, Spain are the favourites to win the group and second favourites to win the competition outright behind the United States. They will have to work from the outset though because this is a tricky group with no real weak links and some very capable sides who won’t make it easy for La Roja.
Women’s olympics 2024 Group C prediction
Group Winners – Japan
Japan are a real force in the women’s game and they could be medal contenders in France. They topped a group featuring Spain at the 2023 World Cup and while they ultimately fell short against Sweden in that tournament, it’s a really experienced Japanese squad that heads to Europe for the olympics.
Forward Mina Tanaka has scored 34 goals in international football while Manchester City midfielder Yui Hasegawa also packs a real goal threat with her runs from deep.
Their recent record in group stage football at the olympics is also a good one. They’ve not failed to progress from a group since Atlanta 1996 and were silver medalists at London 2012. They look to have a side that’s capable of giving Spain a real run for their money and will take confidence from having been the only team to beat the European side at last year's World Cup.
Runners Up – Spain
Spain were the best team at the Women’s World Cup in 2023 and very worthy winners with Olga Carmona scoring the only goal in the final against England.
That was only half the story though with the journey of the Spanish women’s team over the past few years being a very bumpy one. It has involved player revolts and culminated in Luis Rubiales’ infamous kiss on Jenni Hermoso in the celebrations following the final which further shone the spotlight on some of the deeper problems at the Spanish FA and across feminine football in the country.
A year on, Rubiales is out of job and so is World Cup winning boss Jorge Vilda. His former assistant Montse Tome has been promoted to the top job and a very talented Spanish side has continued to impress on the pitch, winning seven of their eight matches since their trip down under.
They should be very competitive in this tournament again, but have run into problems against Japan’s style of play in the past, notably losing 4-0 to them in the group stage of the 2023 World Cup. They may struggle to bury those demons when the sides meet in Nantes on matchday one.
Third place – Brazil
Brazil are very much a force to be reckoned with in this group too. They’ve won all of the last four editions of the Copa America Femenina and were unfortunate to be eliminated with four points at the last World Cup.
Their performances since then have also given reason for Brazil to feel confident heading into this tournament. They won one of their two friendlies against Japan in late 2023 before drawing both games at the SheBelieves Cup earlier this year where the opposition was of the very highest calibre.
They look capable of taking at least a point off either Spain or Japan in this group. Assuming they beat Nigeria, which won’t be easy, they should have enough to progress as one of the two best third placed teams given four points has always been enough for qualification during the four women’s olympics football tournaments played with this 12-team format.
Eliminated – Nigeria
Nigeria may be the outsiders in this group but that doesn’t mean they are going to be simply brushed over. They actually exited the 2023 World Cup without losing a single game and having taken eventual runners-up England to penalties.
Defensively they are a really sound unit, conceding just two goals at that tournament. However three of their matches did end in 0-0 draws and there are doubts about whether they have enough creativity to open up the defences they will face in this group.
While they haven’t lost since the shootout against the Lionesses, they’ve not played any teams from outside of the relatively weak African continent since. That does leave them in danger of coming into this tournament a bit undercooked and unprepared for the kinds of tests that await them in France.
Group C Winners – Potential Round of 16 opponents
The winners of Group C will head to the Parc Olympique Lyonnais for a quarter-final showdown against a third placed team from either Group A or Group B.
According to the latest odds, that’s most likely to be either Colombia or Australia with the latter placed in a really tough group along with Germany and the USA.
Australia would in theory be the tougher test, although that’s more debatable given they are missing star player Sam Kerr who is one of the outstanding performers in the women’s game but is still recovering from an ACL injury.
