In orbit. The French handball team has had difficulty taming the local fervor and the pitfalls of a first match to make a success of its entry into the World Cup, against Poland (26-24) on Wednesday in the “Saucer” of Katowice, a success which clarifies already his journey.
Taking advantage of the charm (or not) of a competition bringing together 32 teams of which only one per group will be eliminated at the end of the first round, the Blues are almost already qualified for the main round when they will face the modest Saudi Arabia on Saturday, then Slovenia on Monday.
quarter door ajar
The reigning Olympic champions, who are aiming, on January 29 in Stockholm, for a seventh world crown which has been fleeing them for six years, even open the door to the quarter-finals for which all the points acquired will be retained against the teams qualified for the main round. Poland will probably be there, she who is probably the toughest opponent of the French in this first round, carried by her audience, 11,000 spectators heated white and red, supporting the “Polska, Polska!”.
Even without her best player, Paris SG pivot Kamil Syprzak, she gave the Blues a lot of trouble, deprived of their captain and defense beam Luka Karabatic, victim of lumbago, and right winger Valentin Gate (thigh). “You have to remember the difficulty of starting a competition and this match had everything of a trap match: great pressure from the public, a little tension in the refereeing which I find did not allow us to develop our game”, said underlined coach Guillaume Gille.
Threatened to the end
His team was under threat from the Poles to the end, who were even neck and neck ten minutes from the end (21-21). Thibaud Briet then finally scored the first French goal of the evening as a left-back (!), before being sent off for two minutes: during this numerical inferiority, Gille’s men scored two goals without conceding a single one, to take a three-step lead (52nd, 24-21).
Then, two consecutive saves by Vincent Gérard (58th, 25-22), less decisive in the second half than in the first and also less protected by his defense, warded off the specter of a first hitch which would have caused a stain, against a selection that has not finished in the top 8 of an international competition since 2016.
A gala Mem
If Gerard made the necessary saves at the right time, the Blues were also able to count on a Dika Mem for great evenings. The FC Barcelona right-back scored five of his six goals after the break, at a time when his team was a little swaying in defense and seemed to lack fluidity in attack.
The Blues could probably have saved themselves so many cold sweats if they had managed to put the head under the water of the Poles at the end of the first period, when they had taken a four-goal lead (12-8, 21st ). But the changes made to breathe the incumbents were not very effective. The Blues still have their work cut out for them, but at least they avoided the Polish “trap” described by Gille the day before the match.
“The defensive sector brought stability in the absence of one of our twin towers in defense (Luka Karabatic), estimated Gille. In attack, it was more irregular with some approximations, balls on the ground. The signs of a start of competition.”