Twenty-one years after their last Olympic final, the Spanish national football team have once again come up short. The young generation of Spanish footballers, led this time by Pedri, who played his 73rd game of the season and his 11th extra time, will return from Japan with a silver medal. The gold medal still goes to Brazil, who defended the most precious Olympic metal that Neymar and Co. had won at Rio 2016, and which Dani Alves, the player with the most titles in history, can now also wear: 45. Barcelona 1992 will continue as the greatest triumph in a Games for the Olympic state team after losing in extra time against the Brazilian team with a goal from ex-Barcelona's Malcom (2-1).

Although in a football match it is important to get off to a good start, the most important thing is how you finish.  The Spanish Olympic team has started losing against Ivory Coast and in less than ten minutes they have also lost Òscar Mingueza. The blaugrana footballer, who was returning to play after contracting a femoral biceps in the first match of the Games, suffered from his injury at the very beginning and the Madrid player Vallejo, who is more of a centre-back than a winger, substituted him on the right wing. But despite losing a player to injury so early on and conceding a goal after just ten minutes, the state side rallied to draw level in a match that still had a crazy twist in store. In the 90th minute the Africans went ahead again, but not a minute later, with the first ball touched by Rafa Mir, Spain drew level again in a match that was decided in extra time with a penalty goal from Mikel Oyarzabal and two more goals from Mir (5-2). They will now meet the winner of the match between hosts Japan and New Zealand in the semi-finals.