the Blues beat Sweden for their return match, Prandi and Villeminot injured

The French handball team made a successful comeback after the crushing failure of the Olympic Games by largely dominating Sweden on Wednesday in Orléans (37-31), thanks in particular to a sparkling first period. The French public left the Blues in tears from the disillusionment experienced on August 7 in Villeneuve-d'Ascq against Germany in the quarter-finals of the Olympic Games (defeat 35-34 AD). He found them frisky and happy three months later. Rejuvenated, too, without several executives from recent years including the now retired totem Nikola Karabatic. A new page is opening, which should lead them to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, first going through the World Cup in January, and it was not erased from the start.

Despite the scar “still a little gaping” of the Games, according to coach Guillaume Gille, the France team crushed Sweden to launch the EHF Euro Cup 2026, a competition organized on the sidelines of the Euro-2026 qualifications for the four selections already having their ticket (the Sweden, Norway and Denmark as organizing countries, France as defending champion). The Blues produced a festival in the first period (21-11 at half-time), where they immediately stifled the Swedes (6-0, 10th) with an aggressive defense around Karl Konan and behind which they were able to deploy rapid counterattacks, with Hugo Descat as chief finisher (5/5, 9/9 in the end).

The left winger rewarded the public with a superb “roucoulette” (shot with spin and rebound) to give a nine-goal lead (10-1) and force Swedish coach Mikael Appelgren to call his second time-out even before the quarter of an hour of play. Without effect on the demonstration of the French, almost all perfectly coordinated runs and passes, like this delicious service from Dika Mem behind the defense for Thibaud Briet deceiving Andreas Palicka with a lob no less subtle (12-3, 16th).

Prandi and Villeminot injured

Briet (6/7), entered from the first minute in place of the injured Elohim Prandi, symbolizes with Aymeric Minne (3/4) this new blue wave set to take up even more space. The tall right-back from Nantes (24 years old, 2.05 m), not selected for Euro-2024 and the Olympics, delivered a full match in defense (against in the 14th minute, interception in the 40th) and in attack , finishing and distribution (pass behind the defense for Fabregas, 37th). The Blues, who will face Norway on Saturday in Stavanger, are off to a good start in a new cycle which started without Luka Karabatic, absent from the match sheet two days after handing over his captain's armband to Ludovic Fabregas. A new cycle well born.

The left back of the French handball team Elohim Prandi, injured in the left shoulder, and the center half Kyllian Villeminot, in the right ankle, were injured as soon as they came into play on Wednesday against Sweden in Orléans ( 37-31). Prandi, executive of the Blues and Paris Saint-Germain, was hit in the first action of the match during a collision with a Swede and immediately returned to the locker room without returning to the bench.

Villeminot had barely more time to enjoy his first selection, delayed by two serious injuries in one year (December 2022-December 2023): the Montpellier player injured his right ankle in the first minute of the second half . “Of course, when we see someone stop without (there having been) contact (Villeminot, Editor’s note), we can ask ourselves lots of questions. When we see Elohim coming out holding his shoulder, of course we are worried. But as long as the tests are not done, as long as we do not have a definitive diagnosis, there will be no conclusion. commented coach Guillaume Gille.