They have been on site since Monday, January 10. Our French, olympic champions, have arrived in Hungary to compete in the European Championship. No time for tourism, the Blues start the competition from the opening day. They face Croatia this Thursday, January 14 at 8:30 p.m. And among the players, there is a Breton. The back Romain Lagarde indeed comes from Ploemeur, near Lorient in Morbihan.
Her family lives there and she stayed in France because of the health situation, but they will be in contact with the handball player throughout the competition: “Usually, I get them by message and face time whenever we can. We try to be able to talk during the competition. We do with the means at hand“, smiles the Morbihannais.
An Olympic title to defend
A welcome support, because the stakes are high for the Breton: it is the first international competition after the Olympic title this summer in Tokyo. The Frenchman knows he is expected: “Necessarily all the teams are going to want to beat us. We know that everyone is waiting for us, we will have to be even more focused on the matches because they will want to bring down the Olympic champion “, warns the player. But nothing to worry the troops: “We don’t have negative pressure. It’s up to us to make even more efforts to raise the level of play to show them that we are above and that it will be hard to beat us”, assures the Breton.
A competition which is also essential in the race for the World title since the first three teams, at the end of the European Championship, will be directly qualified for the next World Championship.
A physical competition
To enter the competition, France faces Croatia. A team with imposing sizes, with powerful players. But the Blues are ready, assures Romain Lagarde: “We play for the most part in the European Cup, so we find players against whom we play in clubs. We know how to prepare for this kind of match. Those are physical encounters with a lot of impact. We are mentally and physically ready. “
The Morbihannais wants to win. Victories which will go through a solid defense, a great strength of the French handball teams: “We will have to be strong physically in defense so that the opponents butt up and we can play the fast game. We will show the players opposite that there is no room to pass.”
Daily tests
We got used to the health situation – Romain Lagarde.
If the management of the health situation seems to leave something to be desired in Hungary, Romain Lagarde is not disturbed “After the World Cup and the Olympic Games, this is the third competition with the covid and tests every day. We are a little used to now, we have taken the plunge and we know what awaits us. It’s part of the program. , but we stay focused on our game and what we have to do. “ The 24-year-old says: “The whole team is feeling good. We worked well and everyone is ready for this challenge.“ A major challenge, which begins against Croatia this Thursday, January 14.
French calendar (Group C Preliminary Round)
• Thursday January 13, 2022 at 8:30 p.m .: Croatia – France
• Saturday January 15, 2022 at 6 p.m .: France – Ukraine
• Monday January 17, 2022 at 8:30 p.m .: France – Serbia