In a match put under the extinguisher by Denmark, it took a grain of madness to stop the machine. This grain was Méline Mocandy. The Scandinavians had probably planned everything except her. The Metz player brought the saving spark to allow the Blue to glimpse the light in an unbreathable match, and finally won on the wire, Friday, December 17 at Granollers. Thanks to Nocandy, but also and above all to an exceptional mental strength, Olivier Krumbholz’s players are in the Worlds final and can dream of a double Olympic Games-World Championships.
It’s over !!! 23 – 22
What an end of the game !! The BLUES qualify for the World Final after a crazy match !!
See you on Sunday for the final against Norway or Spain ✊#BlueberryProud pic.twitter.com/6yv4iUGUhV– French Handball teams (@FRAHandball) December 17, 2021
If the latter are obviously all to be congratulated, Valérie Nicolas, former portress of the France team and consultant for France Televisions, believes that it was Nocandy who was the “X factor” of this match. “By her crazy side and her illegible style for the opponent, she showed that she was not afraid and it was she who sounded the revolt”, she details. Author of a 3 out of 5 on shots, the 23-year-old young woman has above all, by her activity, dynamited the opposing lines and wavered the certainties.
Certainties born from the French inability to recover a ball easily and by an almost constant check in front of the goal where Althea Reinhardt reigned as a despot (only 4 French goals in the first 16 minutes). And like on the other side of the field, Line haugsted (5/5 on shoots) looked like Mikkel Hansen …
“The Danes had perfectly analyzed the game of the French before the match”, observes Valérie Nicolas. “The proof, our game on the counterattack, usually a strong point, was constantly challenged”. An observation shared by Coralie Lassource, at the microphone of TMC: “We lost a lot of balls, we got into trouble on our own. We were very tense in the first half”. And the Brest winger to continue: “but even led to the score, we do not panic and we manage to come back to stifle our opponents”.
The secret of the tricolor ascent is undoubtedly there, in this Olympian calm even in the most critical moments, and symbolized by an Olivier Krumbholz more zen than ever. The coach of the Blues remained an unfailing serenity during the match and it is undoubtedly this relaxation that allowed the victorious return of his players. “We just wanted to seize the opportunities when they presented themselves”, he said on TMC, “but, for 40 minutes, there was none”. Proof of the detachment of the ex-hot coach, the latter admitted that“We cannot speak of relief because if we had lost it would not have been a disaster”.
Krumbholz is also, by his tactical choices and his adjustments, one of the great instigators of the qualification for the final of the Blue. “The passage of the defense 0-6, which did not work at all, in 1-5, clearly made the Danes doubt”, points out Valérie Nicolas. The latter does not forget the tricolor wings either, and in particular Alicia Toublanc, “which made Toft misery at the end of the game”.
If the French have put themselves in a position to change the match in the last minutes, it is also because, once again, the defense has been able to react and adapt. “It wasn’t our day technically and we knew we had to go through a solid defense”, breathed Grace Zaadi after the meeting. “It was very trying but we feel strong”.