2024-01-22 08:43:50
How far away is that draw conceded against Switzerland a week ago (26-26). Since then, the French handball team has reassured itself in this Euro with three victories in as many matches against Germany (33-30), Croatia (34-32) and Iceland (29-32) and is preparing to face Austria this Monday (6 p.m.) to validate its ticket for the semi-finals. The calculation is quite simple: a victory and the place in the semi-finals will already be assured, even before facing Hungary this Wednesday.
Alone at the top of group 1 with 6 points, the Blues face a surprising direct opponent for qualification. The Austrians, who have never done better than 8th place in a Euro, are currently 3rd in this main phase with 4 points and above all an astonishing undefeated status like the French.
Ales Pajovic’s men are having the best European Championship in their history by collecting three draws in the competition against Croatia (28-28), Spain (33-33) and Germany (22-22). They are also the only ones to have dominated Hungary (30-29), in addition to Romania for their entry into the running (31-24).
First place goal
With the strong point: an iron defense. They have the second best defense in the main group behind Sweden with 79 goals conceded. But France, and its 106 goals scored in the last three matches, should be able to find the key. Especially since they found in Samir Bellahcene (12 saves against Iceland) a new starting goalkeeper in goal.
Another advantage for the Blues is that they will be able to play this match with a bit less pressure than their opponents. Nikola Karabatic’s teammates will have another opportunity to qualify two days later against Hungary.
But the objective obviously remains to win everything, and to validate first place in the group as quickly as possible, to also avoid facing the Danish monsters (5 victories in 5 matches) in the semi-final.
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