Contract completed for Guillaume Gille and his players at the Euro. Victorious (29-25) from Serbia on Monday in Szeged (Hungary), the France team won its third game in a row after Croatia and Ukraine, and is full of points and confidence for the rest of the euro. The main round begins next Thursday in Budapest with six teams, and its first opponent will not be known until Tuesday. It will either be Hungary, the Netherlands, or Iceland. In this new group, France will have as their main adversary Denmark, one of the other big favorites of the competition.
Before this last meeting in the preliminary round, the Olympic champions had to avoid losing more than seven goals against an opponent who had previously caused them a lot of trouble. Barely a year ago, Serbia had indeed won (27-24) in the qualifiers for this same Euro, before snatching a draw in the return match (26-26). These were Guillaume Gille’s first matches at the head of the team. Since then, things have changed a lot.
Facing the teammates of Nantes Dragan Pechmalbec, born in France but who chose to take Serbian nationality last April, France, which presents itself with a starting seven composed of Gérard, Fabregas, Yannis Lenne, Mahé, Mem, Descat and Nikola Karabatic, only needs eight short minutes to establish his superiority. While Vincent Gérard multiplies the stops in his cages (62% success), the tricolor attackers, in the first place Kentin Mahé (6 out of 8) pierce the opposing defense on each attack.
The Serbs went eleven minutes without scoring and at the break, the gap is already decisive (16-7). Logically, Gille’s players then lower their foot (22-15). The tricolor coach rotates by launching Wesley Pardin in goal, and Benoît Kounkoud in attack. The gap stabilizes and then narrows in the last minutes, the only gray spot in this game with the lack of success of Romain Lagarde (0 out of 5).
Disturbed in their preparation by an incredible series of events against them (injuries and withdrawals from Nedim Remili, Timothey N’Guessan, Luka Karabatic, and several cases of Covid), Valentin Porte’s teammates therefore thwarted all the unfavorable predictions that hovered above their heads. They are already erasing the poor performance of Euro 2020, where the France team had been left without glory in the preliminary round.
The Blues, who therefore finish 1st in Group C, have two points on the clock, which will allow them to attack the main round with maximum confidence. They now have three days to prepare for the next meeting against the 2nd in group B, whose final matches take place on Tuesday. Iceland is in the lead but can be overtaken by the Netherlands and Hungary (Portugal is already eliminated).
The clash against Denmark (1st in Group A) is scheduled for Wednesday 26 January. At the end of this round, only the first two will go directly to the semi-finals, scheduled two days later.
