“After experiencing this, nothing can stop us.”
Friday evening, in the euphoria that gripped the French ranks after the incredible qualification snatched from the Swedes' noses (34-30), Elohim Prandi felt invincible.
He, who had just moments before scored the most extraordinary goal on a direct free kick 12 meters from the cage guarded by a fiery Andreas Palicka, no longer imagined he could lose.
Not after such a scenario in the semi-final.
A feeling of all legitimate power, but which could come up against a different type of wall this Sunday than the one formed in front of him by the Swedes before his decisive goal.
A wall possibly more difficult to get around…
Indeed, Denmark is the ogre in this Euro.
Certainly, the French team remains the only undefeated team in the competition.
But this statistic is misleading because the Danes, three-time reigning world champions, only lost to Slovenia (25-28) in the last match of the main round which no longer held any stakes for them.
For the rest, the Scandinavian team demonstrated its (many) strengths and its (rare) weaknesses around its star Mikkel Hansen, now confined almost exclusively to the role of shooter of luxury seven-meter jets.
Which says a lot about the quality of the Danish squad, whose headliner is Mathias Gidsel.
At 24 years old, the right-back has almost 80% shooting success, a phenomenal percentage in his position and when we see the attention he receives from opposing defenses.
But Gidsel must not forget Simon Pytlick or Niclas Kirkelokke who play brilliantly alongside him, not to mention the royal pair of goalkeepers made up of Emil Nielsen and Niklas Landin.
We came so close to having our heads cut off, let's continue to dream a little while being the living dead.
Guillaume Gille
A year ago, in the final of the World Championship, Denmark managed to display its current superiority against France in a one-sided final (29-34), thus taking its revenge on these Blues who, during the summer of 2021, deprived him of the Olympic title in Tokyo (25-23).
Now, in one year, water has flowed under the bridge and the French team seems stronger than before.
Above all, she will arrive at this final in a different state of mind, given the way in which she crossed the Swedish milestone in the semi-finals.
“We came so close to having our heads cut off, let's continue to dream a little while being the living dead”
, imagined Guillaume Gille before this final towards which the Blues are advancing with less pressure, perhaps.
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Even if a second victory in a row for the Danes in the final would offer them a certain psychological advantage with a view to the next Olympic Games in Paris next summer, the supreme objective of the French team which dreams of approaching them with the possibility in its sights to achieve an unprecedented Euro-JO double in the same year.
What even their glorious predecessors, the Experts, had not managed to accomplish.
The type of challenge that suits these Blues well.