Rarely have the Blue been so endangered as during this match against Serbia, Saturday 11 December, on the occasion of the second match of the main round in this Handball World Cup. Unrecognizable at the end of the first period, led by three goals at the break, the players of Olivier Krumbholz tore themselves away from the locker room to win on the wire at Granollers (22-19). Thanks to this success, they join the quarter-finals of the competition.
> Relive the complicated victory of the Blue against Serbia
Close victory for the Blue in an ultra-tense match against the Serbs. The Olympic champions join the quarter-finals of the competition!
19-22 #BlueberryProud #Sheloveshandball # Spain2021 #SERFRA pic.twitter.com/K0RZYj6IKF
– French Handball teams (@FRAHandball) December 11, 2021
Afterwards, we say to ourselves that the start of the game for the Blue against Serbia said a lot about the difficulties that Allison Pineau’s teammates were going to encounter this Saturday. Suspended for two minutes on the first Serbian offensive for a foul on Kocic, Alicia Toublanc sets the tone for a match that will be complicated until the end for the French defense. Despite a good reaction – always with quick ball recoveries, the main quality of the French in this World Cup – and a series of five consecutive goals to make the hole at 5-2, the Olympic champions then began to foil.
And the 13-minute shortage at the end of the first period will finish driving Olivier Krumbholz crazy on the bench, who will even receive a yellow card, rare enough to be underlined. Leading 9-6 thanks to a lightning counterattack concluded by Chloé Valentini, the Blues froze. Unable to materialize their possessions in placed attacks and facing an imperial Jovana Risovic in goal, they saw the Serbs return to the game. Jovana Stoiljkovic and Tamara Radojevic put the French defense to death to lead three goals at the break, chaining a series of six consecutive goals against none conceded (9-12). Enough to spread a wind of fear in the sports center of Granollers …
Fifteen minutes later, Grace Zaadi (top scorer with six goals this Saturday) and her partners come back as conquerors, determined to forget this air hole as quickly as possible. In turn, Océane Sercien-Ugolin, Béatrice Edwige and captain Coralie Lassource restore order to take the lead (13-12), pushing the Serbian bench to take a time out after two minutes of play.
A saving time out for the opponents of the Blue since then, the debates will become much more balanced. Unable to fix in pivot and finish the actions on the wings, Pauletta Foppa and the French players see their ball lifts stifled. Behind, Cleopatra Darleux tries somehow to keep her team afloat. She will also prove particularly decisive at the end of the game by stopping a throw of seven meters before a fabulous pastis on a shot from the Serbian winger Stamenic. Equally decisive, Méline Nocandy scored two goals in the money time to make, definitely, blow the bench tricolor.
Without shining, the Blue take the lead of Group I and validate their ticket for the quarter-finals of the World Cup after a great heat stroke.