Brazil and Spain clash in the men’s football final at the Tokyo Olympics with the Brazilians looking to defend their 2016 title won in Rio.
Bookmaker William Hill has the odds at 1.73 for Brazil to become the fifth nation to successfully defend its Olympic title in men’s football. The odds are at 2.00 for Spain to triumph.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: August 6th, 7:30 A.M. (EST)
It’s a third consecutive Olympics final for Brazil after a 2-1 shock loss against Mexico preceded the triumph on home turf. The Spaniards are back in the gold medal game for the first time since 2000 when Samuel Eto’o led Cameroon to glory against them. Spain’s only previous Olympics success came in 1992 in Barcelona.
The Spanish side has reached the final in Tokyo despite winning just once in 90 minutes. The team needed extra time to advance against both Ivory Coast and Japan in the knockout stages. Rafa Mir was the hero with a hat trick in the quarterfinal and Marco Asensio scored the only goal against Japan in the semis.
The Real Madrid man had a very difficult season in 2020-21, which led to him being left off the EURO 2020 squad and there have been doubts of his ability to perform at the biggest stage, but the 25-year-old produced a superb curling strike in the 115th minute against the hosts, and Saturday’s final provides him with another great opportunity to shine.
Brazil’s road to the final was much smoother although the defending champions also couldn’t get the job done in normal time in the semifinals needing penalties to sneak past Mexico.
It’s almost been like a two-man show for the Selecao with Richarlison registering five goals and one assist and Matheus Cunha notching two goals and one assist.
Representing Hertha Berlin, Cunha isn’t very well known in Europe outside of Germany, but he has posted outstanding numbers for the Brazil U23 team with 20 goals in 23 appearances. The 22-year-old will now look to produce a moment of magic in the Olympics final.
It will likely take something special to separate these sides as both have been rock-solid defensively throughout the tournament. Brazil conceded twice in their opening game against Germany, but Saudi Arabia’s Abdulelah Al-Amri is the only player to score against them since then while Spain also heads into the final following a run of three clean sheets in five outings.
