France ends its preliminary round with a victory against Austria

France – Austria

35-27

The French handball team finished at the top of its group in the preliminary round of the 2025 World Cup after a third victory in as many matches, Saturday against Austria (35-27) in Porec (Croatia). The Blues will enter the main round, starting on Tuesday, with four points on the clock.

It is clear that the Austrians competed more with Guillaume Gille's men than Qatar and Kuwait, swept aside (37-19 and 43-19) during the first two days.

Detrimental absences on the Austrian side

But, handicapped by three major absences on the back base, their two left-handers (Janko Bozovic and Boris Zivkovic) and their star right-hander Nikola Bilyk (Kiel), they did not manage, despite the noisy support of their supporters, to push as much the French in their entrenchments than at Euro-2024, where they led at half-time (16-15, 33-28 defeat in the end).

The French team this time never trailed, apart from the very first minutes (2-1). Leading by four goals at half-time (19-15), it experienced a very slight slump upon returning from the locker room, where Austria came back to within two lengths (19-17), then again had a ball to reduce the gap to two units (21-18, 38^e).

An opportunity annihilated by a point-blank save from Charles Bolzinger, who marked his entry into the World Cup with a convincing performance.

Nice start for Bolzinger

Promoted to the match sheet after the withdrawal for the rest of the competition, announced a few hours before the match, of Samir Bellahcene injured in the right thigh, the tall (1.98 m) and young goalkeeper (24 years old) stopped a penalty as soon as it comes into play (25^e).

He did not come out again, notably making a few decisive saves at the end of the match to preserve the gap acquired by exploiting in particular, with several goals in the empty cage, the decision of the Austrians to play seven against six (25-19, 44^e then 30-24, 52^e).

And if Dylan Nahi enjoyed this game situation (5/6 in the end), the Blues were also able to count on the contribution on the back base of Dika Mem and Thibaud Briet (6/8 each) to go up in power before the start of serious things, from Tuesday therefore, on the floor of Varazdin (Croatia).