For the first match of its new era, without Olivier Krumbholz on his bench, the France team fell in Toulon against the Hungarians (27-30).
The French women’s handball team lost its first match of the Sébastien Gardillou era, its new coach, logically beaten by Hungary (30-27) Thursday in a friendly in Toulon.
The Blues began the Gardillou era as they ended the Olivier Krumbholz era, with a defeat. And if the one conceded on Thursday obviously hurts much less than that in the final of the Olympic Games against Norway (29-21), it is a task for this premiere evening, one month before the Euro (November 28-December 15 in Switzerland , Austria and Hungary).
Facing a solid team but which is not among the big names and which they will meet again on Saturday, in Tremblay-en-France. “I really wanted to show another image for the official premiere of Sébastien, and I really hope that we will do it in Tremblay on Saturday.”declared Tamara Horacek, captain in the absence of Estelle Nze Minko, exempt from this gathering.
This first was a restart match and the trials and errors inherent in such a context were not mitigated, on the contrary, by the absence of five major players, spared (Nze Minko, Pauletta Foppa, Chloé Valentini and Hatadou Sako) or injured (Méline Nocandy).
The Blues never seemed to get into the rhythm of a poorly started match (3-7, 13th) in which they never led. They were caught in defense by the speed of the Hungarians and only too rarely managed to develop counter-attacks, a sector identified by Gardillou.
Too many shooting failures
“We were unable to stop them in the central sector and they developed their game towards the outside with very high level finishing wingers. It was identified, we knew that they were going to play in that register” commented Gardillou, who had been Krumbholz’s deputy since 2016.
Their players were also very approximate in attack, multiplying ball losses, poorly oiled starts and lacking precision in front of goal, where they made Metz goalkeeper Zsofi Szemerey shine (9/23 at half-time, 18 /46 in the end). Particularly on the wings, where they experienced considerable waste, Alicia Toublanc and Marine Dupuis in the lead (1/5 each).
The latter, who honored her first selection (like Clarisse Mairot, 0/3) for example missed a face-to-face which would have allowed, eight minutes from the end, the Blues to return to one unit (24-26) . “We had a lot of shooting failures, too many. I know that the French team has this little Achilles heel, it has always had it”underlined Gardillou.
The French, who came back at the end of the match in particular thanks to the saves of Laura Glauser (14/39), finally had an equalizing ball (27-28) 2 min 30 sec from the end, but Szemerey stopped the penalty from Sarah Bouktit (5/10). Who, like the vast majority of her teammates, missed her premiere this evening.
