France – Norway
31 – 27
The Blues of the hand continue their return to form: after Sweden on Wednesday for their first match since the failure at the Olympics, the French team dominated Norway in Stavanger (31-27).
These first two meetings of the EHF Euro Cup 2026, a competition organized on the sidelines of the Euro-2026 qualifications and which pits countries that already have their ticket against each other, were an opportunity for the French to begin a new three-month cycle. after the surprise elimination in the quarter-finals of the Paris Games against Germany in overtime.
The Blues deprived of Print et Villeminot
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.
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 50e cape in Blue, and the contribution of Nicolas Tournat (5/6 in total) and Nedim Remili (4/6), the Blues then widened a small margin (17-14) which they made profitable after returning from the locker room .
Global objective
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.
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 meeting, 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 era.
