Four out of four. For its first match of the main round of the World Cup, which is played in Poland and Sweden until January 29, the French handball team, Olympic champions, continued their faultless course, Wednesday January 18, coming easily to end of a limited Montenegro team (35-24). In this one-sided match, the Blues were never worried and were able to heal their goal average.
The day before, the French team had left behind the Spodek, the sports arena in Katowice, where it had played its first three matches of the tournament, to make a short trip (80 kilometers) to Krakow, south of Poland, where they must play their three main round matches.
Vincent Gérard, man of the match
France was the favorite in this meeting, in particular because it had clearly beaten Montenegro a year ago (37-26) in Budapest during the main round of Euro 2022. On the blue side, only Dika was missing. Mem, who still suffers from a contracture in the abdominals. In his absence, Nedim Remili slipped from playmaker to right-back, as against Slovenia two days earlier.
The hero of the match was Vincent Gérard, who made multiple saves throughout the game. Author of fifteen parades, the goalkeeper of Saint-Raphaël achieved a very high performance. Also solid, Nikola Karabatic, Kentin Mahé and Nedim Remili dictated the tempo at the start of the game, a pace too fast for the Montenegrin players.
If the Montenegrin goalkeeper Nebojsa Simic rather played a good match, the bankruptcy of the two Montenegrin triggers, the left winger Milos Vujovic and the right back Branko Vujovic, did not allow the Balkan players to hope to beat one tournament favourites.
Not very successful in previous matches, Barcelona’s Melvyn Richardson, for his part, rose in power after an initial failure in shooting, to the point of finishing among the best scorers of the meeting. After a brilliant start, which allowed them to reach a difference of five goals in the 18e minute, however, the Habs relaxed. Their concentration swings allowed the Montenegrins to come back a little in the game. On the sidelines, coach Guillaume Gille gave voice to remobilize his troops.
At the break, the gap was only three goals (16-13) in favor of the Blues. On the restart, the Tricolores set off again, always led by a Vincent Gérard of the great days. With his powerful game, Elohim Prandi, the back of Paris Saint-Germain, made a convincing entry and allowed the Blues to knock out the last Montenegrin hopes for good.
In his concern to mobilize his entire workforce, Guillaume Gille gave playing time at the end of the match to Romain Lagarde, in the position of leader, and to goalkeeper Rémi Desbonnet. The latter offered himself the luxury of scoring from his own goal in the last minute.
“We thought it was going to be difficult because the Spaniards struggled to get past the Montenegrins, who have a very good goalkeeper, declared Vincent Gérard, elected man of the match, at the microphone of BeIN Sports after the meeting. It’s a satisfaction to finish with such a gap, even if we could have done better in the first half, where there were a lot of mistakes. We remobilized at the break and we were able to restart strongly in the second half. Unlike previous games, we didn’t slow down around 40e minute, it’s satisfying. »
Guillaume Gille, the coach of the France team, also showed his satisfaction at the end of the match: “There was a little nervousness at the break, but the second half was much more successful than the first and we were able to do a good squad review. »
The Blues have a joker
A little earlier in the afternoon, Slovenia, beaten two days ago by the Blues, made short work of Iran (38-21) and returned to the race for the quarters of final. She will play her qualification against Spain. Insofar as the first two of the six teams making up group 1 will reach the quarters, the French team has a joker: it can afford to lose one of its last two matches of the main round, against Iran on Friday January 20, or against Spain on Sunday January 22.
If they finish first in their group, the Blues will play their quarter-final in Gdansk, in northern Poland, then a possible semi-final in the same city. If successful, they would then join Stockholm, the Swedish capital, to play the final on January 29.