Argentina are expecting to face a hostile atmosphere when they take the field to face hosts France in the quarterfinals of the men’s Olympic soccer tournament in Bordeaux on Friday.
The context comes amid fallout from a video of Argentina players singing an offensive song about French players of African heritage as they celebrated their Copa América victory last month.
The same chants — by some Argentinian fans — emerged before Lionel Messi‘s Argentina team beat France in the World Cup final in 2022.
The French public has already used an Olympic venue to vent — Argentina’s men’s rugby sevens players were raucously and constantly booed by a Stade de France crowd of 69,000 during a quarterfinal against the home team. That’s extremely rare in rugby.
“We can expect a climate of hostility,” Argentina goalkeeper Gerónimo Rulli, a part of the 2022 World Cup-winning squad told reporters Thursday. “Nothing that doesn’t happen in other situations but maybe it’s more explicit against us.
“You go out on the field and they whistle our anthem, like they did against our rugby team. We know this isn’t against us but about what happened in the World Cup and afterward. But either way, it will be a beautiful game to be in.
“It will be a special match because it is the first one after the World Cup final and all the circumstances of these last few months. And we are Argentina, winners of the World Cup and Copa América so everyone wants to beat us.”
