Aurélie Sacchelli, Media365, published on Tuesday January 14, 2025 at 7:31 p.m.
Unsurprisingly, the French men's team started their World Cup with a victory (37-19) against Qatar. The Blues are already almost qualified for the main round thanks to this success.
The French men's handball team was entitled to a remake of the 2015 World Cup final for its debut in the world championship. And like ten years ago, the Blues beat Qatar. Revengeful after their Olympic disillusionment (elimination in the quarter-finals), Guillaume Gille's men dream of winning a seventh star on February 2 in Oslo, and they started their competition perfectly with a 37-19 victory in Porec in Croatia. The Qatar team is no longer as strong as that of ten years ago when it shone at home, even if it is still mainly made up of naturalized players (the Montenegrin Zarko Markovic, the Cubans Rafael Capote and Frankis Carol , the Bosnian Eldar Memisevic, the Tunisian Youssef Benali…). The Qataris completely missed the start of the match, losing numerous balls to find themselves trailing 7-2 after twelve minutes of play. They then returned to -3 (7-4), but the Blues accelerated again to have between six and eight goals in advance until half-time, reached with a score of 18-10. French danger came from everywhere, with no less than twelve different scorers (including 3 goals for Aymeric Minne), and 62% shooting efficiency (42% for Qatar).
The gap has continued to increase
In this type of match, it is always difficult to maintain constant pressure, and the main thing is above all not to get injured and to distribute playing time well (Elohim Prandi, who is just recovering from a leg injury shoulder, did not play this match). And the Blues generally succeeded during the second half, quickly increasing the gap to +10 (21-11), then +15 (33-18) and finally +18 at the final whistle. A one-sided match which allows France to already take a huge step towards the main round, three of the first four in the group winning their ticket to the next round. Thibaud Briet finished as the top French scorer, with 7 goals on 9 shots (the Blues finished with 64% efficiency), while Rémi Desbonnet made 9 saves on 25 shots. On Thursday, the French will once again start as immense favorites against Kuwait, beaten 37-26 by Austria. But we will have to play with the same seriousness.
French markers: Bos (2), Briet (7), Fabregas (3), Karabatic (1), Konan (1), Kounkoud (2), Lagarde (2), Mem (4), Minne (5), Nahi (1), Remili (3), Richardson (3), Tournat (2)
