The suspense ended… at the end of the night.
The Blues, already guaranteed to finish in first place in their group after 3 successes in 3 games, had to wait until the end of the first round this Wednesday evening - and the meeting between Italy and China - to find out their program in the round of 16. World Cup final.
Due to a convoluted formula offering the status of seed 1 and 2 and home advantage to the two host countries (Poland and Slovenia), the doubt was whole for the partners of Earvin Ngapeth who, until the last moment, did not know the name, place or date of their round of 16.
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The Olympic champions finally finish in 6th place in the first phase ranking and will therefore face the 11th, Japan.
A selection trained by an old acquaintance of the Blues.
At 62, Philippe Blain is the former coach of the Blues from 2001 to 2012. He joined the Japanese national team in 2017, first as an assistant and then as a coach.
"Japan is a good team, missed its match against Brazil a bit (
Editor's note: 0-3, 2nd match
) but beat Cuba quite easily (
3-1, last match
), a dangerous team", reacted to of the press the captain of the Blues Benjamin Toniutti.
Another lesson, the Blues will not have to go to Poland, where the other half of the round of 16 is being played, but will stay in Ljubljana, where they have taken up residence for a week.
The duel against Japan is scheduled for Monday at 9 p.m.
In the event of qualification, France will face in the quarter-finals, still in Ljubljana, Italy, reigning European champion, or Cuba.
A "new competition begins" for Toniutti and the Blues who are determined to win the only title missing from their list after the Euros in 2015 and the Games last summer.
