Football at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's tournament

2004 Men's Olympic Football Tournament
Tournament details
Host country	Greece
Dates	11–28 August
Teams	16 (from 6 confederations)
Venue(s)	6 (in 5 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Argentina (1st title)
Runners-up	Paraguay
Third place	Italy
Fourth place	Iraq
Tournament statistics
Matches played	32
Goals scored	101 (3.16 per match)
Attendance	401,415 (12,544 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Carlos Tevez ; (8 goals)
	← 2000 2008 →

Last updated June 02, 2025

The men's football tournament at the 2004 Summer Olympics was held in Athens and four other cities in Greece from 11 to 28 August. The tournament featured 16 men's national teams from the six continental confederations. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four, in which each team would play each of the others once. At the end of the group stage, the top two teams advanced to the knockout stage, beginning with the quarter-finals and culminating with the final at Athens Olympic Stadium on 28 August 2004.^[1]

Qualification

The following 16 teams qualified for the 2004 Olympics football tournament.

Means of qualification	Berths	Qualified
Host nation	1	Greece
2004 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship	3	Italy (winner) Serbia and Montenegro (runner-up) Portugal (third-place)
AFC Preliminary Competition	3	Iraq Japan South Korea
CAF Preliminary Competition	4	Ghana Mali Morocco Tunisia
CONCACAF Preliminary Competition	2	Mexico (winner) Costa Rica (runner-up)
2004 CONMEBOL Men Pre-Olympic Tournament	2	Argentina (winner) Paraguay (runner-up)
OFC Preliminary Competition	1	Australia
Total	16

Venues

Athens	Athens Piraeus Heraklion Patras Thessaloniki Volos class=notpageimage\| Location of the host cities of the men's football tournament of the 2004 Summer Olympics.		Patras
Olympic Stadium			Pampeloponnisiako Stadium
Capacity: 71,030			Capacity: 23,558

Piraeus			Thessaloniki
Karaiskakis Stadium			Kaftanzoglio Stadium
Capacity: 33,334			Capacity: 27,770

Heraklion			Volos
Pankritio Stadium			Panthessaliko Stadium
Capacity: 26,240			Capacity: 22,700

Match officials

Africa

Essam Abd El Fatah (Egypt)
Divine Evehe (Cameroon)

Asia

Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh (Malaysia)

North and Central America

South America

Europe

Oceania

Charles Ariiotima (Tahiti)

Seeding

The draw for the tournament took place on 9 June 2004. Argentina, Greece, Japan and Morocco were seeded for the draw and placed into groups A–D, respectively. The remaining teams were drawn from four pots with teams from the same region kept apart.

Pot 1: Host, Top-Seeded teams from Africa, Americas and Asia	Pot 2: Non-top seeded teams from Asia and Oceania	Pot 3: Non-top seeded teams from Americas	Pot 4: Non-top seeded teams from Africa	Pot 5: Non-top seeded teams from Europe
Greece (assigned to A1) Japan (assigned to Group B) Argentina (assigned to Group C) Morocco (assigned to Group D)	Iraq South Korea Australia	Costa Rica Mexico Paraguay	Ghana Mali Tunisia	Italy Serbia and Montenegro Portugal

Group stage

Teams highlighted in green went through to the knockout stage.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Mali	3	1	2	0	5	3	+2	5	Qualified for the quarterfinals
2	South Korea	3	1	2	0	6	5	+1	5	Qualified for the quarterfinals
3	Mexico	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4
4	Greece	3	0	1	2	4	7	−3	1

Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}

11 August 2004

20:30

South Korea	2–2	Greece
Kim Dong-jin 43' Vyntra 64' (o.g.)	Report	Taralidis 78' Papadopoulos 82' (pen.)

Kaftanzoglio Stadium, Thessaloniki

Attendance: 25,152

Referee: Jorge Larrionda (Uruguay)

11 August 2004