TOPS
The
“miracle”
of Elohim Prandi
“He can try it a thousand times…”
“It’s a miracle.”
Lucides, Guillaume Gille and Nikola Karabatic know well that the goal they witnessed in the last second of the match, the one sending France into an improbable overtime, is as improbable as it is exceptional.
Ten meters from the goal guarded by a hot Andrea Palicka, with a wall and arms peaking more than 2.50m from the ground, Elohim Prandi had to achieve the impossible.
And by completely shifting, taking advantage of the immobility of the opposing defenders, perhaps surprised to see the Frenchman being able to contort himself in this way, the French left-back managed to send an exceptional missile, astonishing under the crossbar of his partner from Paris SG, helpless.
Read alsoEuro handball: Prandi's incredible free kick to send the Blues into overtime on video
A sparkling first period
Certainly, a few ball losses – their guilty pleasure – could have been avoided.
Certainly, the first five minutes were less convincing.
But what the Blues offered for around twenty minutes at the heart of this first act was frankly exciting.
Defensively, first of all, with a goalkeeper, Samir Bellahcene, transformed into a real wall during almost ten minutes of offensive drought for the Scandinavians.
And in attack, what the Tokyo Olympic champions achieved proved to be very clean and very fair collectively, with beautiful shifts concluded by effective wingers, good intervals found by the backs.
So much so that France did not even need to rely on its pivotal totem Ludovic Fabregas, who only had one shot to get his teeth into, a sign of the game stamped
"wide open spaces"
of a French formation well in the lead after 30 minutes of a magnificent score (17-11).
Blues with a mentality of steel
To
“survive”
such a match and reach the Euro final, you had to have incredible mental resources.
And a collective in unison.
Good news, France has both.
Which even made Elohim Prandi say that
“nothing could happen to him”
.
This will still have to be demonstrated in the final on Sunday.
But for sure, the scenario of this semi-final could serve them in the near future, like during the Olympic Games in Paris for example.
Because even at the height of the storm in the second half, the Blues continued to believe in it, to
“not give up”
as Nikola Karabatic recalled, while many others would have sunk definitively.
And in overtime, while Sweden had a terrible headache, the French found new momentum, a new lease of life to offer themselves a new final, a year after that of the World Cup.
FLOPS
A catastrophic second period
As since the start of the competition, France continued to show this Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde face.
Sometimes magnificently seductive, then terribly repulsive.
Above all, it continues to regularly squander all the score advances it manages to create.
An observation valid for all of his matches during this Euro.
Putting Sweden to six goals in the first half was an achievement.
But
“succeeding”
in losing this comfortable advantage in barely ten minutes of handball mischief at the start of the second half was another, much less brilliant one.
Fortunately,
“Saint Prandi”
came down from the sky to save his people from an outcome that would have left Guillaume Gille’s men with heavy regrets.
Jim Gottfridsson, the guilty mistake
He was presented as enemy number 1 on the Swedish side.
But ultimately, the Scandinavian center-half will never have weighed on this semi-final, which he finished with a 4 out of 8 shots, far from his 9 goals and 6 assists in the semi-final of Euro 2022 , a competition that he finished with the title of MVP.
Above all, Jim Gottfridsson, despite the experience of his 31 years, made the fatal error.
Namely a walk 10 seconds from the end while Sweden had a foot and a half in the final.
A beginner's mistake, which would precipitate the fall of his family.
And in overtime, he was never going to succeed in getting his team back in the direction of travel.