Favorites, les Bleues, for a third world crown in its history (2003 and 2017)? Olivier Krumbholz and its players know it: a status is not a title. The French women’s handball team Learned the hard way at the world championships in Japan in 2019, when the reigning European champions had only gone further than the first round. The Olympic gold gleaned last year does not therefore guarantee the highest step of the podium in the 2021 World Cup which begins this Thursday in Spain.
A renewed but ambitious team
“You can’t win all the time, concedes the Moselle coach, but it’s a team that is ambitious, with which we won the Olympic Games, so we can’t say that we don’t have high goals. “ Three Dragons are in the group that will start the competition with a match against Angola (Friday, 6 p.m.): Tamara Horacek, Chloé Valentini and Méline Nocandy. Captain Metz, leaving for Paris 92, does not hide her impatience to do battle: “There are world champions in the collective. I know it’s an extraordinary emotion, so I too want to live it” ensures the center-half who at only 23 years old already has 40 selections in the tricolor jersey (83 goals).
I can’t wait to start the competition and try to grab this title (Méline Nocandy)
Despite the retirement of executives like Amandine Leynaud, Siraba Dembélé or Alexandra Lacrabère, the Bleues still have experienced and multi-titled executives such as Allison Pineau or the old Metz Zaadi, Edwige, Flippe or Glauser. A team well armed to achieve the minimum objective of the semi-finals, as befits a team of their rank.
For the first round, in addition to Angola, France will face in its group A Slovenia (5/12 at 6 p.m.) and Montenegro (7/12 at 8:30 p.m.). The matches are played in Granollers.
The France group:
Guardians: Cleopatra Darleux, Laura Glauser, Catherine Gabriel – Left rear: Allison Pineau, Kalidiatou Niakaté, Estelle Nze Minko – Left wings: Cholé Valentini, Coralie Lassource – Right rear: Laura Flippes, Océane Sercien-Ugolin – Right wings: Alicia Toublanc, Lucie Granier – Half centers: Grace Zaadi, Méline Nocandy, Tamara Horacek – Pivots: Béatrice Edwige, Pauletta Foppa, Oriane Ondono. Breeder: Olivier Krumbholz.
The other Messines of the World Cup
Six other Metz Handball players are playing this 2021 World Cup in Spain: Bruna de Paula and Adriana Cardoso with Brazil, Debbie Bont with the Netherlands, Louise Burgaard with Denmark, Ćamila Mičijević and Ivana Kapitanović with Croatia.