The French handball team took a step towards the quarter-finals of the Men’s World Cup after starting the main round as it had finished the group stage: with a convincing victory on Wednesday January 18 against Montenegro (35-24 ) in Krakow.
The format of the competition, where the points of the first round (against the other qualified teams) are kept in the second, favors selections like France which have made a clear round.
The Olympic champions, winners of Poland (26-24) then Slovenia (35-31) during the first phase, took the lead in their group with six points, two more than Slovenia and Spain, who plays in the evening.
A game under control again
The first two are qualified for the quarters and the Blues should be, except surprise, one of these, with success in the two games to come, against the modest Iran Friday then Spain Sunday.
The road to Gdansk seems clear after a match that has been mastered again, like against the Slovenians, against the Montenegrins whose game is a little more stereotyped. They thus often forced the shots from the rear base, facilitating the work of Vincent Gérard, who also released some exceptional parades.
The goalkeeper made seven saves in the first twenty minutes to allow the Blues to widen a small gap (10-5, 19th), reduced to only three units at the break (16-13) after a less controlled end of the first period.
Melvyn Richardson, man of the match
Gerard started the second half with three saves. Including two penalties (3/3 in this exercise in the end). He finished with nearly 50% success (15/33). After two goals from left-back Elohim Prandi, author of a good start before experiencing more waste (two failures), Valentin Porte increased the lead to seven units twenty minutes from the end (23-16).
Besides Gérard, the man of the match on the French side was Melvyn Richardson. In the absence of Dika Mem, still injured in the abdominals, the son of the former “Barjot” Jackson Richardson, 1995 world champion, perfectly replaced the position of right-back Nedim Remili, much less successful than Monday against the Slovenians (2/5 and some bad pass choices).
After two failures in his first three shots, Richardson signed almost flawless (10 goals out of 13 attempts), especially on penalties (4/5) where he also replaced Kentin Mahé.