In their first Olympic final in forty years, France defeated Egypt 3-1 and will now face Spain.

Aug. 5, Paris (Reuters) – After defeating Egypt 3-1 in extra time at the Lyon stadium on Monday, hosts France will play in an Olympic men’s football final for the first time in forty years. They will play Spain for the gold medal.

After losing their opening goal of the competition to Egypt’s spectacular lead thanks to a goal from Mahmoud Saber, France rallied with a late goal from Jean-Philippe Mateta.

Mateta scored twice and Michael Olise added a goal in extra time to give Thierry Henry’s team the win and advance their pursuit of a second Olympic crown against Spain, who had defeated Morocco 2-1 earlier on Friday at Parc des Princes.

“What an amazing evening! The players deserve all the credit. Egypt played incredibly well tonight, but we never gave up on winning, and the supporters encouraged us,” head coach Henry remarked.

“We have already secured a medal, but we still need to complete one more stage to win our first gold medal in football in forty years. It will be a thrilling match as Spain awaits us in the championship.”

Prior to Saber’s goal in the 62nd minute, Egypt—who were competing in their third Olympic semifinal—had more attempts on target in the first half. Saber took advantage of a rebound to score on his second effort.

After hitting the crossbar three times during the game, Mateta finally found the net seven minutes from time after Olise’s ball through Egypt’s defense gave France the equalizer.

After Omar Fayed was given a second yellow card for a foul on Desire Doue early in extra time, Egypt was reduced to 10 men. Then, in the 99th minute, Mateta scored again, this time with a powerful header to put France ahead.

Mateta remarked, “This was the night of my dreams.” “However, I still need one more night to continue dreaming. This is for the supporters; they didn’t stop chanting even after the score dropped.”

In order to complete the victory and advance Egypt to the bronze-medal final against confederation rivals Morocco in Nantes on Thursday, Olise also scored three minutes into the second half of extra time.