Beaten in Podgorica at the weekend, Vincent Collet’s players made short work of Hungary this Monday, in Mouilleron-le-Captif, in qualifying for the 2023 World Cup.
The Reaction Blues. Beaten on the floor of Montenegro on Friday evening (70-69), Vincent Collet’s men got the better of Hungary on Monday (81-40), in Mouilleron-le-Captif, to complete the first phase of qualifying for the Cup of the world 2023 with five victories in six matches. Beautiful atmosphere, beautiful service, without fault. 15 points for the excellent Théo Malédon, top scorer of this one-sided meeting after the break. “I want to play for the France team. As soon as I had the opportunity, I always tried to show that I deserve to play and the confidence of the coach (Vincent Collet)“, swears the Oklahoma City player, on beIN SPORTS, he who had declined the selection last year to better come back, as he had explained a few weeks ago to the Figaro .
13 points also to be credited to Mouhammadou Jaiteh and 10 to Amath Mbaye. “We needed a reaction. We did it as a team, with this collective and defense, it’s our DNA“, smiles the latter, stressing that France “put a lot of pressure from the start and it made them tired after half-time“. We have seen this…
With 5 points from Andrew Albicy and 4 from Poirier in the first quarter, the Habs produced a cannon start (13-6) against the Hungarians who were out of game and skill. Speaking of skill, the French already had twice as many winning shots converted in this match as Friday in Podgorica. Not very hard: they had only returned one… Still, due to several inaccuracies, they were unable to make this advantage bear fruit (15-11 end of 1st QT).
Same causes, same effects at the start of the second (20-11, then 30-25). After two missed opposing shots and a triple signed Mbaye, we breathed better in the French camp. And under the leadership of Maledon, France finished strong (39-25). “We are happy with the last two minutes, but not too much beforegrowled Albicy at the break, at the microphone of beIN SPORTS. We are good defensively, but we make a lot of mistakes and we lose a lot of balls… If we manage to sort that out and put our baskets in, we could make a real difference. We finished the first half well but we can do better.»
Two points conceded in the third quarter
It is on this good momentum that the Blues started the second act, and even better in fact, passing a 17-0 entry to the Hungarians, helpless (56-25)! Demonstration of a French team which took as much pleasure as it gave to the Vendéspace public and which only conceded two points in this third quarter won 29-2 to lead 68-27 with 10 minutes to play. Obviously, more suspense after that. A last quarter in the shape ofgarbage time” giant. Still, the Blues enjoyed so much until the end that it’s derogatory to say that (81-40 final score). “If we had had that attitude, we would have won quite easily last Friday.“Squeaks Vincent Collet. And the national coach to add:We were reacting. We all assumed that we hadn’t done the right thing on Friday, player and staff, and we wanted to show another face. We knew victory was likely, but we wanted the way too. Tonight the contract is fulfilled“. And even a little more than that.
Next meeting for the France team? July 29 at Insep, for the start of preparation for EuroBasket 2022 (September 1-18). This time it will be with Evan Fournier, Rudy Gobert and other NBA and Euroleague players. There is talk of a return of Fabien Causeur. On the menu, friendly matches against the Netherlands in Rouen (August 7), Italy in Bologna (August 12) and Montpellier (August 16) and Belgium, still in Montpellier (August 18). Then, two matches counting for the second qualifying phase for the World Cup, including the one scheduled on the boards of the AccorArena in Bercy, on August 24.
