TOPS
Hugo Descat, too alone in the turmoil
For his first World Cup, the left winger has taken a date.
With 31 goals scored, he is the co-top scorer of his team with a Mahé disappeared from circulation at the worst moment (see below).
On this semi-final, the former Cristolien took his responsibilities.
As usual, in the second half at Michaël Guigou's relay.
With his 5 out of 5, he will have maintained a tiny hope until five minutes from the end.
But alone, he could not do everything, especially at his post so dependent on others ...
Swedish wingers impress
Before this semi-final, Guillaume Gille pointed out the speed of the Scandinavian game and the quality of his wingers as the two main opposing poisons.
The coach was not wrong on any of the two points.
If Sweden was able to quarter the blue defense in this way, it owes it mainly to its two wingers, right-hander Hampus Wanne and left-hander Daniel Pettersson.
Between them, they will have scored 17 of Sweden's 32 goals, with a sublime 17 of 19 on shots.
All while playing for more than 58 minutes.
Great art.
FLOPS
The bankruptcy of the French goalkeepers
Four stops between them.
A desaster.
Especially for Vincent Gérard who will have gone through it like never before.
A stop on 20 opposing shots for the incumbent.
Impossible, under these conditions, to hope to cast doubt on a very good Swedish team.
Admittedly, the last French rampart was not helped by its defense, too often taken in speed.
But his 0 out of 5 on the wing is a painful finding of helplessness, where Yann Genty did a little better with a 2 out of 6. A finding to say the least unexpected when France had started this world with as men of first two matches Wesley Pardin (since injured) and Vincent Gérard.
And the shadow of Thierry Omeyer to return to the landscape ...
Adrien Dipanda, symbol of a hard-pressed defense
Presented as the possible boss of French defense at this World Cup, Adrien Dipanda had seen his status crumble match after match.
So much so that he had only played the utilities in the last three meetings before this semi-final.
Brought back to the forefront by the injury of Luka Karabatic, the Saint-Raphaël player unfortunately demonstrated his limits at this level of the competition, with three outings for two minutes synonymous with definitive exclusion.
Overall, he was unable to reduce the influence of Swedish center-half Jim Gottfridsson ...
Kentin Mahé will not have held on to the length
Best French scorer before the choppy matches, Kentin Mahé had established himself as the offensive leader of this France team, nicely taking over from an injured Nikola Karabatic who remained at home.
Alas, this costume will have finally been too big.
Already, in the quarter-finals, he was one of the main responsible for the catastrophic start of the match for his family and came out after 7 minutes.
To never come back.
In this semi-final, Mahé will have played only four more minutes, before disappearing.
Painful downgrading.
Read also
2021 World Calendar and Results
