‘Perfect’ Canada face Germany test in Olympic women’s football quarter-finals

PARIS – Defending champions Canada have a point to prove as they take on Germany on Aug 3 in a bid to reach the semi-finals of the Olympic women’s football tournament.

The Canadians have made the knockout stage in Paris despite a points deduction over a drone spying scandal.

Four-time gold medallists the United States and World Cup holders Spain are also in action in the last eight.

Canada’s hopes of repeating their run to gold in Tokyo three years ago appeared to be over when they were docked six points by Fifa, as a punishment for using a drone to spy on a New Zealand training session.

They later won the match 2-1.

Coach Bev Priestman, who was reportedly aware of the incident that was carried out by members of her staff, was suspended for a year.

Despite all this, the Canadians beat Colombia 1-0 in Nice on July 31 to make it three wins out of three, hours after an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against their penalty was dismissed.

After a remarkable sequence of events, the eighth-ranked nation still finished second in Group A behind France and are through to the quarter-finals, and now face 2016 gold medallists Germany in Marseille.

“We always knew that we could do it. The chances were stacked against us but we pulled through,” defender Vanessa Gilles, the match-winner against France and Colombia, told Canada’s CBC.

“We still believe the sanction was unfair, unjust and unprecedented.”

Germany lost 4-1 to the US in the group stage but went through with wins against Australia and Zambia, and Horst Hrubesch’s team may be a step up on anything Canada have faced yet.

The Americans, targeting a record-extending fifth women’s football gold, meet Japan in Paris in a repeat of the London 2012 final, which they won 2-1.

Under new coach Emma Hayes, the US won all three group games, with their attacking trio of Trinity Rodman, Mallory Swanson and Sophia Smith all impressing.

“Honestly, we are kind of like sisters. This group we have right now is special and we are having a lot of fun,” said Swanson.