The Blues already had one foot and four toes on the return plane, that was without counting the rescue on the gong by a supersonic free kick from Elohim Prandi, which miraculously snatched the extension, the French handball players reached for the fourth time in the Euro final by defeating the Swedish title holders (34-30), Friday in Cologne.
An extension snatched at the last second
Before facing themselves in the final on Sunday (5:45 p.m.) against the Danish world champions or the German hosts, opposed in the other semi-final in the evening, Guillaume Gille and his men will certainly wonder how they came so close to elimination, namely less than a second. There wasn’t quite one left on the clock, when PSG left-back Elohim Prandi sent a last chance free kick with an off-balance shot into the top corner to deceive his goalkeeper in Paris, Andreas Palicka.
He who had “always been in pain” since the elimination at the same stage of their World Cup in Stockholm, will undoubtedly suffer from this one for just as long, despite a second during which his numerous saves allowed his team to return to the match, after a lagging first act. Neither he nor his teammates ever recovered from the equalizer and the Blues regained the upper hand in this meeting alternating sauna and ice bath.
“I’m really proud,” said Prandi, who missed the last Euro after a stab wound. “I know that I am capable of doing this kind of shot… (…) I analyzed the wall. I told myself that I was going to shoot on the side. I have confidence in my shot and in me. And there you go…”
A fourth final for a fourth coronation?
If matches that are impossible to lose do not exist, this semi-final had the form and even the scent in Cologne. Because at half-time, the French defense dried up the Swedish attack, limited to only 11 goals (17-11), before giving in after returning from the locker room. The Olympic champions, still undefeated in this Euro, conceded a 7-1 (18-18) having completely revived the “Blagult”.
The French rotation, without guides Nedim Remili and Dika Mem at this moment of the match, seemed to run out of air in this “high altitude confrontation”, in the words of coach Guillaume Gille. To make matters worse, they lost their ex-captain Valentin Porte to an injury after twisting his right ankle. The fact remains that they found resources in extra time, after Prandi’s cannon shot which struck Sweden terribly, and that they will be on the Kölnarena in the final.
This is their second in a row after last year’s World Cup, lost to the Danes (34-29). And even the third in less than three years, counting that of the Tokyo Olympics. So far, no final has escaped them at the Euro. Each time the French handball team presented itself on the last step, it was crowned (2006, 2010 and 2014), with in its ranks the handball legend Nikola Karabatic, determined to raise in Germany a of his ultimate challenges, almost 40 years old and in no way satisfied.