Argentina strike gold

An Argentina side containing nine European-based players in their 18-man squad claimed Olympic men's football gold for the first time with a 1-0 victory against Paraguay in Athens.

Teves winner
Carlos Teves scored his tournament-leading eighth goal of the games on 17 minutes when he turned in Mauro Rosales's cross, and although Paraguay pushed hard to improve the colour of their first Olympic medal in any sport, their chances went when they were reduced to nine men in the second half. Emilio Martínez went for an elbowing on 67 minutes, and a quarter-hour later Real Valladolid's Diego Figueredo was dismissed for deliberate handball.

Dominant performance
It completed a tournament dominated by Argentina, who scored 17 goals without reply in winning their six games, the first time in 21 Olympic competitions that a side has claimed gold with a perfect defensive record. It is the first South American triumph since Uruguay in 1928, when they beat Argentina, whose other silver came eight years ago. Argentina had not won gold in any sport since 1952.

European medals
UEFA European Under-21 Championship winners Italy, beaten by Argentina in the semi-finals, ensured a European medal yesterday by overcoming Iraq 1-0 to claim bronze in the tournament for under-23 squads plus three overage players. That matched Germany's achievement in defeating Sweden in the women's competition, won by the United States ahead of Brazil. All other European contenders - Portugal and Serbia and Montenegro in the men's tournament and hosts Greece in both events - departed in the group stage.