The French handball players finish fourth in the Euro in Hungary after a final defeat in extra time against Denmark. Not seeing France on the podium of an international competition is obviously as rare as it is disappointing.
In Hungary, the Blues had a lot of bad luck during these two weeks but are not looking for excuses, starting with Ludovic Fabregas. The Catalan pivot had the flu (with fear of COVID) and was injured but he makes his mea culpa and judges not to have been at the level over these two weeks.
Do you think you badly negotiated this last match against Denmark?
In the first half, we are well ahead, even if we only lead by one goal but in the engagement we are there. In the second half, we didn’t give up even with three goals behind and we manage to snatch the draw. The 3 – 0 taken in extra time kills us, it comes at the worst time. We did not know how to recover.
Is this fourth place still a disappointment for the France team?
It is still difficult to analyze it on the spot. In the first part of the competition, we showed a lot of strength and solidity. Iceland was the first hitch, we lost logically even if we had a lot of absentees. We were able to snatch qualification in a difficult match against Denmark.
In the semi-finals, we had the opportunities but we didn’t know how to get ahead. We were irregular in this competition. We chained the very good and the average. Only, the average at this level is not enough to win matches. Of course, there are very good things and we will retain the positive. It’s unfortunate to finish fourth because we felt a lot of commitment from all the guys and the staff. We wanted to do a good result after the Olympics but in all that there is also hope which will allow us to do better in future competitions.
Personally, how do you judge your Euro? Was he disturbed by this fear of having COVID?
I was not afraid, it can happen on a daily basis. Where I am disappointed is in what I produced. It’s more personal but you have to admit it I didn’t do a big competition, I was not at the expected level and I did not help the team as well as possible. I’m very sorry. I have to analyze this euro well to know why it did not work. I started fine but after that it didn’t work so of course I had the flu, of course I had stitches but in the end we don’t care, you have to fight for the friends and this last match is significant, I was not at the level and especially in the games that matter.