Handball World Cup: Vincent Gérard impassable, Melvyn Richardson leaping

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The Vincent Gerard wall

15 stops at 45% success.

A quarter of an hour from the end, when he gave way to Rémi Desbonnet, Vincent Gérard wore the smile of the goalkeeper who had just achieved a magnificent performance.

Which would logically earn him the title of man of the match.

Among its various feats of arms of the day, the last French rampart especially impressed by diverting three jets of seven meters out of four, thus disgusting the Montenegrin shooters.

Without forgetting a brilliant parade on a kung-fu yet inspired by Montenegro, but which stumbled on a wall.

Since the start of this World Cup, Vincent Gérard had already been brilliant, but a little intermittently.

Obviously, he decided to raise his voice when approaching the main round.

Melvyn Richardson's Pretty Round Account

Even if he finished with a final failure on a seven-meter throw, his first in five attempts, Melvyn Richardson signed one of his best performances in selection.

He, who has often struggled until now, fully exploited his potential with the blue jersey on his back, may have found his famous reference match this Wednesday, which could act as a mental trigger.

Sharp in his interval shots, the Barcelona right-back had started with a first missed shot.

Which, concerning him, is normally not a very good sign.

But not tonight.

Behind, he remobilized to sign a 10 out of 13 of very good quality.

And promising for the future on a position, let us remember, which still suffers from the absence of Dika Mem, still in the stands due to

The welcome turnover of Guillaume Gille

The matches follow one another in this World Cup and the organizations suffer.

France has already paid a heavy price for injuries, whether before – seven players forfeited – at the start – Valentin Porte and Luka Karabatic absent from the first match – and during – with the injury of Dika Mem.

Suffice to say that this clear success in Montenegro comes as a godsend for Guillaume Gille who was able, during the last quarter of an hour, to rotate his workforce without fear, in particular letting a Nikola Karabatic breathe, very much in demand until now.

Thus, apart from Vincent Gérard in a position, goalkeeper, where it has much less impact, no outfield player has spent more than 35 minutes on the floor of the Tauron Arena.

And if all goes well, on Friday, against Iran,

FLOPS

Insufficient success in shooting on the French side

While the first two matches against Poland and Saudi Arabia had been rather convincing in this area, the French team has struggled since in shooting.

Especially in the first period.

As against Slovenia two days ago, the Blues joined their locker room with a mediocre 57% success rate.

Like a Ludovic Fabregas who missed his first two shots, before reacting well.

Kentin Mahé also alternated between brilliant and far too individualistic in his shooting initiatives (3 out of 6 during the first act).

And even if in the end the French success rose to 64%, the Blues should not always wait for the second act to set the sights.

Branko Vujovic in the middle of a nightmare

Before this match, Branko Vujovic had clearly been identified as enemy number 1. With 25 goals on 37 shots since the start of the World Cup, a very good 68% success rate for a back, the Montenegrin was in 3rd place in the ranking of goalscorers.

But he should back down after his oh so delicate performance against the Blues on Wednesday.

Especially during a first act completed on a 1 of 6 shooting.

The second period will have been a little better (2 out of 4), while remaining far from what he is capable of doing (3 goals in total).

Now, his trainer only kept him on the pitch for 40 minutes, he who had been in great demand in the first round.

Which explains, with the very good French defense on him, this evening to quickly forget.