Guillaume Gille: “We are getting into the heart of this Euro”

What is your assessment of the 1st round? Are you fully satisfied?

First of all, I want to be sure that no one misunderstands my way of evaluating our performance. We fell into a very tricky group, with two teams from the Balkans who are customers. We were at the forefront of this first phase, and to have come out of it in this way, it proves the quality of our workforce and our performance. Now, they are only a stepping stone for the future and from this Thursday, we are going back to the heart of the matter, to the heart of this Euro with four teams which will be very tough to leave behind us.

Is the failed end of the game against Serbia anecdotal in your eyes or is it a reminder shot to avoid igniting?

As with every positive or negative period, it is scrutinized for evaluation. It is certain that our end of the match was not as controlled as the rest. The main thing was to qualify with the two points on the clock. We were also able to continue to rotate thanks to our excellent first half, which allowed some players to enter systems a little more and accumulate playing time. This can benefit us in this main round. .

After Serbia, you highlighted Vincent Gérard's performance. Does he give you the impression of having made further progress since the Tokyo Olympics last summer?

Vincent is in an excessively positive dynamic. I just want to remind you that he went through a complicated period before the Euro on a personal level, and finding himself able to perform so quickly having been removed from the group during the preparation is a real guarantee of quality on his part. He is an essential bulwark and we need his performances, as well as those of Wesley (Pardin), to continue to grow.

How do you plan to adapt to the absence of Karl Konan (positive for Covid-19) in defense?

Clearly, his absence is detrimental to us because of his performance and the place he has taken in the collective. Digitally, we repatriated Théo Monar. Otherwise, in the group, we have players who have already worked in the past as number 3 defensive. I am thinking of Nicolas Tournat, Dika Mem or even Nikola Karabatic who is able to fulfill missions of this type. In the little time we have left, we are building a plan which is not yet completely finished, but which will have to be by the match against the Netherlands.

Does the 1-5 defense, with Benoit Kounkoud advanced, seem operational to you?

The 1-5, from the moment it is used in competition, it means that it is operational, that we believe in its system.

Otherwise, I assure you, we would not venture there.

Ditto for Theo Monar.

If we called on him, it's because we think he can be effective immediately, otherwise we would have called someone else.

We have confidence in him and his ability to bring something to the team.

We know the policy of Hungary, without a real health bubble, and we deal with it.

It is our daily life.

Guillaume Gilles

In Szeged, you complained about the sanitary conditions at your hotel.

Is the situation better in Budapest?

We are in a hotel that seems better suited to hosting six teams. That's a lot of people, but the hotel is quite large. Despite everything, from my point of view, given the multiplication of positive cases and the current context, I find the measures taken still insufficient because we continue to eat in a huge canteen. Even if each team stays in its corner, it happens that we cross paths at times. Now we know the policy of Hungary, without a real health bubble, and we are dealing with it. It is our daily life. After the announcement of Karl's positive case, we have reinforced our system by ensuring that contact times within the group are as short as possible. Except that we are also there to prepare and play matches together.So we are necessarily suffering from the situation, and we know that the Covid threat is still hovering over us and the other teams.

What do you think about the composition of your group in the main round?

Impressions from before usually don't take you very far.

We are in a game of confrontation, where the reality on the ground is always the one that wins.

Today, all the qualified teams got their ticket by fighting hard in very competitive pools.

Our opponents will offer us very different games, to which we will have to adapt to continue to collect points for the semi-finals.

How do you view the Netherlands, a team that will play without pressure in this main round?

It's a team that is advancing, playing well and which, during the qualifying phase, pulled itself out of a complicated group.

This team, today, seems well established, with high quality players like Luc Steins, who we know very well in the French championship (he plays for PSG), or Kay Smits, who is the right back of Magdeburg which hovers over the Bundesliga.

There are a few captains in this team which gives it a very playful character.

They put a lot of rhythm and intensity into everything they do, practicing a handball that could be described as total, made up of a lot of movements.

You will have to be very vigilant.

And whether they have achieved their goals or not, they will want to continue surfing on their beautiful momentum.