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Barcelona midfielder Lamine Yamal has sent his congratulations to Fermin Lopez for his heroics in Spain's 5-3 extra-time win over France in the final of the 2024 Paris Olympic men's football competition on Friday (August 9). Yamal and Lopez are teammates at Barcelona.
Lopez, 21, was a key player for La Roja in the eight-goal thriller at the Parc des Prince. After Thierry Henry's side had opened the scoring through Enzo Milliot in the 11th minute, Lopez restored parity seven minutes later before putting La Roja ahead in the 25th minute.
Alex Baena (28') put La Roja in the ascendancy before Maghness Aklioche brought his team back into the contest with 11 minutes remaining. Jean-Philippe Mateta's penalty in the third minute of stoppage time pushed the game into an extra half hour, where a Sergio Camello brace ended Les Bleus' resistance.
Following the team's first Olympic gold-medal win in men's football in 32 years, Yamal called out his 'little bro' Lopez on an Instagram story, which read (as per Barca Universal):
"Yessss little bro! Well deserved."
It's pertinent to note that despite being under-23, Yamal wasn't chosen in the Olympic squad after his heroic exploits for Spain at UEFA Euro 2024 in Germany last month.
Meanwhile, gold for France would have lifted them above Great Britain (14 golds, 57 overall medals on Friday) in the overall medals table at the Olympics.
A look at Barcelona star Lamine Yamal's exploits at Euro 2024
Barcelona sensation Lamine Yamal had a sensation campaign for Spain at Euro 2024, breaking a slew of records as La Roja became the first four-time European Championship winners.
Playing all seven games, the teenager bagged one goal and four assists, with four of those goal contributions (one goal and three assists) coming in the knockouts, making a goal contribution in all four knockout games.
His equaliser against France in the 2-1 win in the semi-final made Yamal the youngest player to score in the Euros. In that game, he had also became the youngest player to appear in a major-tournament semi-final, breaking the late Pele's record set way back at the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden.
A few days later - a day after turning 17 - Yamal became the youngest player to play a major-tournament final and the youngest to win the European Championship. However, he narrowly missed out on becoming the youngest scorer in a Euro final.
