Michaël Guigou crossed the 1000 goal mark for the French handball team on Tuesday evening, participating in the French victory in Greece 40 to 31, which allows the Blues to get closer to the 2022 European Championship.
Thanks to this success, the French have 7 points, three more than Greece (4) and two less than Serbia (9).
In this group, Belgium was forced to package due to the health crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.
The French can validate from Thursday, and without playing, their ticket for Hungary and Slovakia, host countries of Euro-2022 from January 13 to 30, in case of defeat of Greece against Serbia on Thursday.
Otherwise, they will have to take at least the point of the draw against these same Greeks on Sunday (5:00 p.m.) in Créteil.
In Korydallos, on the outskirts of Athens, all the ingredients were in place for a trap match for the French, 4th in the last World Cup-2021 and qualified for the Tokyo Olympics: a small room, almost non-existent preparation with a rally started on Monday , and an opponent that France had not played for a very long time.
The Blues came off the score quite quickly and managed their lead, however making a very muddled copy at times, especially in the second half.
The 31 goals conceded against a very modest Greek team, testify to a poorly controlled game defensively and more complicated than hoped for at the start.
In this context, Michaël Guigou has written a small page in the history of the French hand: in the 10th minute on a throw of 7 meters, the captain became the fourth player in the blue jersey to cross the bar of 1000 goals in the selection. .
And a few minutes later, he added a 1001st on a superb kung fu between wingers, receiving the offering of Valentin Porte from his left wing.
Only three other players had crossed this symbolic milestone: Jérôme Fernandez, who remains the best director of the Blues with 1,463 goals, Nikola Karabatic with 1,210 goals and Frédéric Volle with 1,016 goals.
At 39, the Nîmes player will have several opportunities to get closer to Volle and climb on this podium for the top scorers.
From Sunday against Greece, and in Tokyo for the Olympics this summer if he is selected.
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