Defending champions Argentina enter the Beijing Olympics as favourites to win gold. The fierce and famous rivalry between Argentina and Brazil will once again take centre stage at this year’s Olympic football.

Argentina will look to draw inspiration from the mercurial talent that is Lionel Messi, and will be hoping that rising star Sergio Aguero and the experience of Juan Roman Riquelme will prove too much for their opponents. Brazil will be looking for Ronaldinho to rediscover the scintillating form that saw him win world footballer of the year in 2004 and 2005. If he can rejuvenate his somewhat flattened career and combine with the likes of Alexandre Pato and Rafael Sobis then Brazil could win their first ever Olympic gold.

Both sides will be looking to put their last world tournament behind them. At the 2006 Football World Cup Argentina excited and enthralled the world with their football in the group stage before suffering a shock defeat at the hands of Germany in the knockouts. Brazil suffered a similar fate, crashing out to France in the Quarter Finals and have been in disarray ever since. It is widely rumoured that anything other than an Olympic gold medal in Beijing will see the end of Dunga’s reign as manager. As well as these two South American giants, the Netherlands are also strong contenders for the gold medal. They have won two consecutive Under 21 European Championships and have plenty of attacking threat in Ryan Babel and the experienced Roy Makaay.