This defeat will be hard to pass. The Blues were completely suffocated by Iceland on Saturday where they suffered a heavy defeat (21-29), ending their invincibility in the competition.
France was certainly diminished by the absences of its coach Guillaume Gille and the players Kentin Mahé and Karl Konan, positive for Covid-19, and Ludovic Fabregas, sick, but so was Iceland. With eight players affected, she finally produced a high-flying performance to beat the reigning Olympic champions in style.
Hallgrimsson and Magnusson put on a show
The Blues were jostled from the start, trailing 5-4 after eight minutes of play. But the failure of Hugo Descat for the equalizer (10th) then the two minutes of Nicolas Tournat quickly allowed the Icelanders to take a little ahead (9-5, 15th).
Above all, the French stumbled on a game Hallgrimsson, 21, in full swing in the first half (10 saves and 47% efficiency) when they attacked, and suffered the lightning of Magnusson infallible in defense with already 8 shots for 10 attempted.
Iceland was therefore logically in the lead at the break, and we were waiting for a French reaction… which never came.
Faced with Icelanders in control, the tricolors had all the trouble in the world to do their handball and did not really express themselves. In attack, they were completely muzzled, Minne, Tournat and Descat registering only five goals each.
Heading for Montenegro and Denmark
To this was added the loss of ball and the bad choices in attack, making a possible comeback. And to the genius of Magnusson was added the efficiency of Kristjansson with his 10 goals (for 13 attempted).
The French handball players therefore suffered their first defeat of this Euro-2022 and have major areas for improvement for the rest of the competition. They especially missed the opportunity to take the lead in the main tournament in front of Denmark, which hosts Croatia this Saturday evening.
Iceland therefore takes advantage of this victory to return to equal points with France, and benefits from an easier schedule since it will host Montenegro and Croatia for its last two matches. France, it will have to ensure against Montenegro on Monday (8:30 p.m.) and especially against Denmark on Wednesday (8:30 p.m.) to hope to qualify for the semi-finals.