The Paris Olympics women’s football tournament is reaching its climax, and three Arsenal players – Laia Codina, Mariona Caldentey (Spain), and Emily Fox (USA) – are still in contention for medals.

While their Olympic journey continues, the rest of the Arsenal Women’s squad has returned to London Colney for pre-season training, gearing up for the upcoming Champions League qualifiers and the US tour.

Spain's forward #08 Mariona Caldentey reacts during the women's quarter-final football match between Spain and Colombia during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Lyon Stadium in Lyon on August 3, 2024. (Photo by Arnaud FINISTRE / AFP) (Photo by ARNAUD FINISTRE/AFP via Getty Images)
Spain’s forward #08 Mariona Caldentey reacts during the women’s quarter-final football match between Spain and Colombia during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Lyon Stadium in Lyon on August 3, 2024. (Photo by Arnaud FINISTRE / AFP) (Photo by ARNAUD FINISTRE/AFP via Getty Images)

We have now reached the semi-finals at the Paris Olympics women’s football tournament and three Arsenal players are still in the competition.

Spain’s Laia Codina and Mariona Caldentey and the USA’s Emily Fox.

All the other players have gone home and will join Arsenal later in the month, as the squad return to pre-season training on Monday.

The first pre-season friendly will take place on the US tour on August 18th against the Washington Spirit.

Here are the official IOC/Omega/Atos statistics:

First, let’s have a look at Australia, who went out in the first round, finishing in third place in their group and not making it to the knock-out stage. They scored seven goals and conceded 10. They lost to Germany 3-0, defeated Zambia 6-5 and lost to the USA 2-1. A poor showing and their manager left at the end of the tournament.

Steph Catley played 277 minutes, scored two goals, got two assists, had three shots on target out of five with one out on penalty. She suffered two fouls and committed no fouls.

Kyra Cooney-Cross played 225 minutes, has one assist, no shot on target from one attempt and two fouls suffered. Caitlin Foord played 256 minutes, had three shots on target from seven shots, committed three fouls and suffered four fouls and got one yellow card.

Canada had an excellent tournament. However, they were caught spying on their opponents with a drone and were handed a six-point penalty in the group stage. They won their three games beating New Zealand 2-1, France 2-1 and Colombia 1-0 to finish runner-up in Group A with three points. They lost in the quarter-finals to Germany 0-0 and 4-2 in the penalty shoot-out.

Chloe Lacasse has seen a meagre 157 minutes in the tournament, she scored one goal, got 80% shots on target from five shots. She committed three fouls and suffered three fouls too.

The USA will play Germany on Tuesday in Lyon. They beat them 4-1 in the group stage, alongside Zambia 3-0 and Australia 2-1. Under Emma Hayes, they have made a good start but struggled to beat a very defensive Japan side 1-0 after extra time.

Emily Fox went off with an injury at the end of extra-time against Japan and we don’t know if she will be fit to play on Tuesday. She has played 363 minutes so far, had one shot off target, committed one foul and suffered three fouls. She is the number one choice at right-back and hopefully will be fit to play the semi-final and final, should they make it.

Spain have had a good tournament winning their three group games: 2-1 against Japan, 1-0 against Nigeria and 2-0 against Brazil. They then struggled in the quarter-final against Colombia as they went 2-0 down but managed to come back to 2-2 and won 4-2 in the penalty shoot-out. They will take on Brazil, again in Marseille, in the semi-final.

Mariona Caldentey has played 345 minutes so far, scoring one goal and also grabbing an assist. She has had 14 shots and two on target. She committed one foul and suffered one and is a key player in Spain’s ball possession game.

Laia Codina has played 132 minutes, as she is used as a rotation player. The centre-back has one shot on target from three shots and committed two fouls.

All the teams in the semi-finals are guaranteed two more games as there will be a gold medal final and a bronze medal final.

The tournament finishes on Saturday the 10th, there are two options for the three remaining Arsenal players: either they join the rest of the team before the USA tour starts as they will be based in Washington DC from August 15 to 26 and then get a rest later in the season.

Or, they could join during or after the USA tour in preparation for the Women’s Champions League Qualifying round 1 that will take place at Meadow Park on 4 and 7 September. Contrary to last season, there are fewer players involved in the later stage of the international tournament, so the team will be much better prepared for the Champions League.