They will therefore play to scare each other and maintain this suffocating suspense until the end. While they undoubtedly had the opportunity to finally find a reference match, the one that would have freed them from their doubts, would have allowed them again to bulge the torso and would have placed them in favorable waivers in the quarterfinal race. In the final, the players of the French handball team once again left the floor with their heads down, morale at half mast and without knowing what their future would be like this Saturday noon at Yoyogi Stadium. After their encouraging draw against Sweden two days ago (28-28), the Blue, again trapped by their inconstancy, have indeed conceded against the Russians their second loss (28-27) in four games since the start of the competition.
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📷 FFHandball / Icon Sport #BleuetFier # Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/VKYcB7tnhX
- French Handball Teams (@FRAHandball) July 31, 2021
“And once again, the scenario is very frustrating, blows an Allison Pineau who has long carried his team in attack (9 goals) as in defense.
I am a little devastated to see that the scenarios repeat themselves and that the moments when the seesaw does never work in our favor.
I have the feeling that we are always making the same mistakes, that we always let our opponents come back at the end of the first period, that we miss our starts in the second and that we lack lucidity in the money-time.
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Very critical of herself following this failed counterattack at the end of the match - "the first of my career", she pleaded - which might have changed the situation, the most capped of the Blue (258 selections) has enough experience to know that the signals sent by his team are hardly encouraging. Failing to have provided answers on his chances of qualification or his level of play, this fourth and penultimate group match only gave birth to questions, most often without answers. "If you have the explanation, I want it because I do not know what is happening, breathlessly Estelle Nze Minko I do not know what is happening, thus blows Estelle Nze Minko necessarily also by her two losses of end of game ball. It's been a while since we made this observation, that we do not show such a bad face,but it is not enough, it still lacks the click for it to pass. "
A spark that the Blue must imperatively have Monday against Brazil to extend their Japanese adventure. “The next few hours will be complicated, but we have no choice, we will have to re-mobilize, says captain Coralie Lassource. "It is nothing other than a round of 16 that awaits us, recalls Méline Nocandy, aware that a new defeat would push the Blues into the plane. It's gonna be a life-to-death match. I don't know how, but this one will have to be won. "Allison Pineau goes even further:" Either we show that we are a great team, or we go out through the back door. This never happened to the France team leaving the Olympics before the quarterfinals. I do not want to write this page of history there, especially after what we have just done for five years ",she ends, referring in particular to the world and European titles and Olympic silver gleaned brilliantly.