On his lips, we guess a big “phew!” And a great relief. Like all his friends, Nedim Remili suffered this Wednesday evening in the suburbs of Cairo. But in the end, the Parisian is smiling. At the end of a stifling fight, concluded in overtime against solid Hungarians, France climbs, once again, to the semifinals of a World Championship.
Twenty years, almost to the day, after the world final at Bercy which had crowned the France of young people Thierry Omeyer, Daniel Narcisse and a certain… Guillaume Gille and launched the epic of Experts, France will find Sweden in half. final Friday (5.30 p.m.). At the end of a complicated and badly started match, the Blues of Guillaume Gille came out of the trap embodied by Hungary (35-32 AD) when the Scandinavians outclassed Qatar (35-23).
Finally in their rightful place
A year after a disastrous Euro (14th), France has already found its napkin ring at the table of the kings of the hand. Since 2001 and the Parisian coronation of the Costantini generation, the Blues of the sticky ball will play their tenth world semi-final, the 13th in their history. In the 21st century, they missed the meeting of the last continental square only once, in 2013 in Spain. They had then been taken out by Croatia. “The quarter-final is a moment of change, had considered Gille at kick-off. It’s the game that sends us home or gets us into two more games for a medal. “
The seesaw fell on the right side: the Blues extended their stay in Egypt and set out to conquer a twelfth medal in a World Championship since the first, in silver, in 1993. At the end of the day, Sunday, where the Pharaohs once built their multi-millennial kingdom, there is a 7th world champion title to go for. Without skipping steps, the Blues know that it is within reach.
The Blues, meanwhile, can already tell themselves that they have succeeded in their competition beyond expectations. Seven games for as many victories, it is unexpected. Who, a fortnight ago, when entering the tournament against Norway, thought that these Blues in reconstruction – without their soul Nikola Karabatic, remained at home, with a new staff and a year without playing because of the pandemic – would have gone this far? “It was hard, admits Michaël Guigou on BeIN Sports. There was a little relaxation after the big game against Portugal. Two days off is difficult to manage when you are in a rhythm to play every two days. It’s super cool. If we had been told, after the two games against Serbia, that we would be there, we would not have believed it. The Nîmes winger refers to the draw and the defeat of the French before the World Cup, during qualifying for the next Euro.
Karabatic and NGuessan affected
“The coherent objective is to qualify for the last four, hoped the double Olympic champion Jérôme Fernandez at the opening of the tournament. Once you are there, in 48 hours, anything is achievable. But with this team, being in the last four is a very ambitious goal. It is accomplished. The only shadows on the board concern Luka Karabatic and Thimothey N’Guessan. The first came out in the first half and didn’t come back afterwards. As for the second, he seems to have relapsed in the adductor: an injury that had already deprived him of four games during this world championship. Guillaume Gille did not want to say more about the youngest Karabatic, but he seemed worried. We should see more clearly about them in the next few hours.
