Cédric Chasseur, edited by Gauthier Delomez with AFP
, modified at
7:40 p.m., December 19, 2021
The French women’s handball team was largely bowed in the 2021 World Cup final against Norway (29-22) and failed to achieve the Olympic Games-World Championship double. The Bleues were however ahead at half-time, but the French did not keep pace with the Norwegians in the second half.
The Norwegian handball players became world champions by beating France, 29-22, in the final Sunday in Granollers (Spain). The Scandinavians were up to six goals behind (16-10) in the first period but overthrew the Olympic champions from Tokyo after returning from the locker room. The French had the possibility of achieving an international double in the space of four and a half months, but they will have to try their luck another time to emulate the Danes (1996) and the Norwegians (2008), who had doubled Olympic gold. with European gold.
Several mistakes allowed Norway to return to this final
The regrets will be eternal because the Blue had the ball to lead by seven goals at the end of the first period, while they were taking an advantage over their opponents. But several errors allowed Norway to regain hope before returning to the locker room (16-12 for France).
And after the break, Henny Reistad woke up to allow the Tokyo bronze medalists to reverse the trend and stifle French women short of strength after a grueling tournament (nine matches in 18 days). Norway and France have dominated the international scene since 2016, with three titles for each of the two nations: World-2017, Euro-2018 and JO-2021 for France, Euro-2016, Euro-2020 and World-2021 for the Norwegians. . The players of Thorir Hergeirsson put Norway back on the top at a World Cup, when they had not won the planetary title since 2015.