There was little suspense before the meeting.
There were no more during.
Building on what it had shown during the group stage, the French handball team won in a wheelchair its qualification for the semi-finals of the Olympic tournament against Bahrain.
The surprise guest of the competition, who took part in his first Olympic campaign, was not unworthy, even taking advantage of a drop in the French regime in the first period to reduce the gap to the strict minimum (12-11, 21st). A coup of brilliance without consequence and especially punctual which did not in any way slow down the Blues on the way to the last four. Quite the contrary. Not content with fine-tuning their automatisms, Nikola Karabatic and his partners have, without forcing, all taken care of their statistics.
As in 2011, during the only confrontation which had hitherto opposed the two teams (42-17), the French team took place in attack.
A godsend for Guillaume Gille who, after registering the forfeit of Timothey N'Guessan, replaced by Romain Lagarde due to an injury to the right calf, and left Hugo Descat in the infirmary to treat his adductor pain, was able to do turn its workforce.
Not only did all the Blues take part in the meeting but they, with the exception of goalkeepers Vincent Gérard and Yann Genty, all made the nets tremble.
Unusual schedule
In this concert of good news, only the unusual schedule of the meeting, scheduled at 9:30 am, made Guillaume Gille growl. "Delighted and satisfied to be in the last four because it is the final packaging, the one that counts", the French coach nevertheless regretted having to "play a quarter-final of the Olympic Games at 9:30 in the morning". “It's anything but ideal,” he says. Playing his destiny at this hour, I find that it is not suited to high level sport. We got up very early (note: 5:45), the players and the staff slept little, it's not the best for recovery. " “This morning, it's true, it was a bit stung, it was a little harder than usual, smiles Mickaël Guigou in reference to his getting up at 5.55 am But fortunately, we were serious, applied and awake. "
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Unusual conditions which, however, did not spoil the pleasure of the French.
“We're super happy to have won this quarter-final,” smiles Melvyn Richardson, who is present at his first Olympic Games.
We were able to adapt to what this great team from Bahrain offered us.
I'm happy with what we did both in defense and in attack.
It's up to us to continue our momentum and to remain in the same mood in the semi-finals.
"
Present for the fourth time in a row in the last four, the France team will have to wait a few more hours to find out which of Germany or Egypt, which face each other at 13:45 French, will stand in their way on Thursday (10 or 14 hours French) in the semi-final. “Germany is a team that has a lot of big guys, which is very solid and experienced in the practice of cleaver matches,” Gille recalls. As for Egypt, with its athletic potential, it is the rising team, they have come out with great encounters. Their opposition will give rise to a high-level meeting, the outcome of which is far from clear. Whatever our future opponent, it will be huge, we will have to be ready to fight a big fight. This will be the price of a place in the final. The fourth in a row, too, for the Blues.
