Les Bleues are certainly not in the red. But this Thursday, they have not relieved themselves of this unpleasant feeling, that at best, it is to orange that they will spend in quarter. Two days after the disturbing face revealed against Spain (25-28), the French handball team has certainly found life, envy and pride against Sweden in its third match of the Tokyo Games. But she still lacks that killer instinct, that composure that had made her a 2017 world champion and 2018 European champion feared around the world, and which could have offered her a little more than a draw (28- 28) against the Scandinavians, leaders of this raised group B.
Rather than retain the penalty of the win missed by Grace Zaadi at the last second and the many unmissable that could have allowed his troops to breathe a little air in hot moments, Olivier Krumbholz clearly took the party to be positive the point gleaned against the Swedes. “We had periods where we were rather the leader in the field, he noted with reference to the gap widened in the first period (10-15, 24th). There are always these air holes where what we have built disintegrates in a very short time. But we had the merit of hanging on and continuing to believe in it even when we were led by two goals. I am very happy with the commitment of the girls and the result. We must not forget that this team had walked during the first two games and there, we put a stop to it. "
"We do not manage to drive the point home"
But we must not forget, either, that the Blue have, on numerous occasions, had the opportunity to put their opponents in the hole and that they have, almost every time, let the opportunity pass.
“It's the same problem as usual, blows Béatrice Edwige out of the field.
We do a good twenty minutes, we have opportunities at 6m to widen the gap and we can not put them.
Fortunately, we are heroic in defense and Cléo (Editor's note: Darleux, the guardian) closes the house at the end of the match.
For me, the penalty of the last second is anecdotal, the real question is to know why we do not manage to drive the point home?
"
No one among the Tricolores seems, for the time being, to have the answer. "Yes, we could have won it, but we could also have lost it", prefers to retain Grace Zaadi specifying that his missed penalty will not prevent him from sleeping because an important match awaits the Blue on Saturday against Russia, then a last , Monday, against Brazil two nations also holders for the hour of 3 points. “I do not know if we are in danger, continues the leader. On the other hand, I know that our group is dense and that it is not time for calculations. The only thing we need to think about is playing. "And ahead, besides Hungary, at least one other opponent to be sure of seeing the quarter-finals.
