The French handball team finishes its preliminary round of the World Cup on Saturday January 17 (6 p.m.) in Porec (Croatia) against another inferior opponent on paper, Austria, diminished, with the objective of gaining strength and making plenty of points for the main round.
The first phase of the Blues is a reflection of their environment on the Croatian coast, mild, sunny and calm after two large victories against Qatar (37-19) and Kuwait (43-19).
A little more than five months after the Olympic snub, they are spending peaceful days on the shores of the Adriatic, from where a first wave emerges, this Austria which had given them a hard time a year ago in the main round of the Euro (33-28, 15-16 at half-time).
Also qualified after two successes, it however presents itself with less strength than in Cologne, handicapped by three major absences on its back base: injuries before the competition of the right-hander from Kiel (Germany) Nikola Bilyk and the veteran left-hander Janko Bozovic s That of the other left-hander, Boris Zivkovic, was added on Thursday against Qatar (28-26).
The duel at the top made us sputter
The announced summit of Group C has lost color and the Austrians have precious weapons to push the French to their limits before the main round, starting Tuesday in Varazdin, still in Croatia. No matter, according to left winger Dylan Nahi: “We don't really pay attention to whether they are weakened or not. They will play to win, with all their cards.”
Guillaume Gille is on the same wavelength: “How is the opponent? What state should we have faced them in? We have enough to think about all day to imagine all the probable scenarios.”
“An increase in power is necessary”, added the coach of the Blues who must win to reach the main round with four points, and thus not compromise their chances of qualifying for the quarter-finals.
-No injuries
“We need to continue to stabilize what we produce, facing an opponent who will cause us more problems than the first two”he continued, not seeing “not much negative to learn” of the first two meetings.
Apart from a damaged eyebrow for Luka Karabatic against Kuwait, which does not cause him any concern, Gille had no injuries to report. He was also able to distribute the playing time (only goalkeeper Charles Bolzinger did not play) and give rhythm, Thursday, to Elohim Prandi, who only had one game in his legs after his shoulder dislocation left in early November.
“The signals are very positive”
“I see a lot of quality and effort from the group to enter this World Cup in the best possible way. We allowed everyone to find some form of reference. The performances are convincing whatever the rotations”, judged the coach.
“The signals are very positive but we are only at the beginning of the journey: the World Cup is a real marathon”he added, “convinced that we will need to do much better to go further”.
The only downside is a certain ineffectiveness against the goal on the wings (6/14 over the two matches) and in taking penalties (3/7). Nothing to worry about Gille, who highlights the appearance of (easy) matches, nor Nah i: “We're not going to worry about every missed shot. Otherwise, it quickly becomes complicated.”
