USMNT crash out of Olympics with heavy quarter-final defeat to Morocco

• Paris 2024 quarter-finals: Morocco 4-0 USA
• Morocco through to Olympic semi-finals for first time
• Latest medal table | Live Paris schedule | Full results

Morocco are through to the last four of the Olympic men's football tournament for the first time after a dubious Soufiane Rahimi penalty opened the scoring, second-half goals by Ilias Akhomach and Achraf Hakimi brushed aside whatever suspense remained around their progress and a stoppage-time spot-kick by El Mehdi Maouhoub in a stroke of delirious overkill. The Atlas Lions, playing before what felt like a home crowd in the 16th arrondissement, denied the US a second trip to the semi-finals in 64 years and their first since their fourth-place finish in 2000,

Tarik Sektioui's side have surely felt star-kissed in this tournament ever since launching their campaign before the opening ceremony with a 2-1 win over two-time gold medalists Argentina in a match that was interrupted for almost two hours after a pitch invasion. But although Argentinian referee Yael Falcon Perez's decision to award a penalty for US right back Nathan Harriel's challenge was harsh, the outcome even before the second-half onslaught was the correct one on a sun-splashed afternoon when the Americans didn't see much of the ball and saw what crude forays into the final third they could muster easily snuffed out. By the end of the game, the US had engineered just one effort on target.