The French men's handball team, rebuilding after a failed Olympic Games, continued its good comeback by winning on Saturday November 9 in Stavanger against Norway (31-27).
These first two meetings of the EHF Euro Cup 2026, a competition organized on the sidelines of the qualifications for Euro 2026 and which opposes the countries already having their ticket, were the opportunity for the French to begin a new cycle, three months later the surprise elimination in the quarter-finals of the Paris Games against Germany in overtime.
Three days after the great success against the Swedes (37-31), the teammates of the new captain Ludovic Fabregas won again with mastery against the Norwegians who had also beaten them at the Games (27-22), during the second preliminary round match.
Deprived of Elohim Prandi, seriously injured in the shoulder, and of Kylian Villeminot, operated on the Achilles tendon after being affected like his compatriot on Wednesday, Guillaume Gille presented himself with a tight group, completed by the arrival of Romain Lagarde midweek.
8 stops for Desbonnet
If Sweden had suffered the tricolor storm in the first period three days earlier (21-11 at the break), the start of the match was tighter against the Norwegians, who were playing without their star Sander Sagosen.
Thanks to a good period from Rémi Desbonnet (8 saves), for his 50th cape in Blue, and the contribution of Nicolas Tournat (5/6 in total) and Nedim Remili (4/6), the Blues then carved out a small margin (17-14) which they made profitable after returning from the locker room.
A second period also marked by satisfaction in defense, with the very good match from Karl Konan. The French, who sometimes led by six goals, sealed their victory with a goal from Hugo Descat, less successful on Saturday (4/8) than a few days ago in Orléans where he had achieved a flawless performance.
The World Cup in January
But the French team is flawless at the end of this week. She will return to the home of handball in Créteil at the end of December before competing in the French tournament in Strasbourg at the beginning of January.
The first major event, the 2025 World Cup (January 14-February 2) and the start of the competition against Qatar in Croatia, will then ring the start of a new year but above all a new blue era.
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