World Handball Championship: “Blues” in the final for the seventh star!

The French team wanted a revenge, and the Blues got it. Magical and beautiful. After two semi-final losses to these same Swedes at the 2021 World Cup in Egypt (26-32) and then at the Euro a year ago in Hungary (33-34), the Olympic champions have overcome the curse. This is great news.

It seems that the proverb “never two without three” is not translated into Swedish. It’s great because six years after his last world title (and his last final of that competition) at his home in Bercy, France is in a World Cup final again. The Blues have just an hour to play to claim their seventh star.

And they played without Niko Karabatic

King Nikola Karabatic, even standing on one leg at the height of his 38 years and not included in this semi-final, needs only a few great efforts to receive his fifth personal coronation, the last in such a masterful career. If he accomplishes this incredible feat, he will equal his friend and boss at PSG, the only one with 5 world gold medals on the shelf today: Thierry Omeyer.

Meeting them this Sunday evening in Stockholm, Guillaume Gilles players will find a team they know inside out. Denmark, who beat Spain in half (26-23), will try to win a third world title in a row. This would also be historical. World champions vs olympic champions, there is no better poster, even if there is nothing new in it. It will be grand.

But how much sweat had to be worked out in the gigantic Tele 2 arena in the Swedish capital this Friday night to get there! As expected, this semi-final against a yellow wave of 20,000 fans turned out to be epic, seething, indecisive, epic in places. It took nerves of steel to endure. Without their best player Jim Gottfridsson, who suffered a finger injury during the quarter-finals, the Swedes sold their skin dearly.

Wonderful Mahe, very big Meme, huge Fabregas

But the Swedes will not have a chance to forge the world title gold in front of their people. Even without Nikola Karabatic suffering from a goddamn pain in his leg, the Blues were valiant. Great defensively, they had a good idea to start the evening well (16-12 at halftime). They continued it well (24-21, 45th) and, most importantly, finished well (31-26). “The Swedes beat us twice, but this time we took the right flank. We leave with a victory that does not tolerate any disputes. We are tired, spinning in the washing machine cycle at the end of this Mondial. But now, even if it means playing to the end, you can still win,” savored Vincent Gerard at the BeINsport microphone.

Kentin Mahe was great, Dike Mem was very tall, Ludovic Fabregas and Nicolas Turna were huge, Nedim Remily was true to himself. Vincent Gerard hung a wire mesh over his cage. All these talents send France to the final. “I’m proud of what the guys have invested in this match,” sums up Guillaume Gilles on BeINSport. In general, the Scandinavian teams are not inferior to us, but it was a very successful match and we had to go to the final. We had the best match since the beginning of the competition, and I’m very happy about it. »

8th World Blues Final

Now very clever, who can say who will write their name again on the blue and gold World Cup on Sunday. There really is no favorite. France and Denmark have a colossal track record. The Danes will take part in their sixth World Cup final: they have lost three matches and therefore are not invincible. Blue balance? This is the eighth time that France has reached the final of the World Handball Championship. She won them all but one. This defeat is 30 years old. It was in 1993 and it was in… Sweden.