A perfect tournament for the victorious French team
France won the rematch of the 2021 World Cup final against Norway. In Herning, Denmark, Olivier Krumbholz’s team, who will be stepping down as senior national coach after the Olympic Games in Paris after a total of 23 years, beat the Norwegian co-hosts 31:28 (20:17). The French took revenge for the 22:29 final defeat in Granollers, Spain two years ago, in which they were leading 16:12 at halftime, but then collapsed. The pairing on Sunday was the second in the tournament: France was also able to prevail in the last main round game (24:23; 12:12) and thus played a perfect tournament. Nine wins in nine games.
Better into the game
The final in front of over 12,000 spectators began with speed and Norway was slightly in the lead. The fact that the score was already eleven in the middle of the first half showed that neither the defensive lines nor the performance of the goalkeepers were the focus, although the French defense, which found its way into the game better and fed off technical errors from the Scandinavians, contributed to the gold medal winners took the lead at the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020 and held it until the final siren. It is the third World Cup title for a French women’s national team.
Norway had to play with extra minutes in their bones: In the semi-final against Denmark, the central backcourt player Henny Reistad (Team Esbjerg) made it 29:28 with a surprisingly free shot in the last second of the first extra time, after the score was 23:23 after 60 minutes and the Danes were leading 14:9 at halftime. Reistad was named player of the tournament with 52 goals scored and a hit rate of 74 percent.
Denmark defeated the host Swedes 28:27 (18:15) in the game for third place on Sunday. This not only means bronze for Denmark, but also a direct starting place for the Olympic Games in the summer, as France as the host country and Norway as the reigning European champions have already qualified. Previously, the Swedes had no chance in the semifinals against strong French women on Friday and came up short with 37:28 (19:11). An evening game in which the predominantly Danish audience gradually began their journey home early after their own team had narrowly been eliminated.
Mortgage too big
Fast-paced counterattacks were the only way the Swedes were able to fight their way back into the game after the score was 10-2 for France after 13 minutes.
The Swedes had similarly overrun the German team in the early stages of the quarter-finals (27:20; 16:6).
Meanwhile, the DHB selection managed an easy win against the Czech Republic (32:26; 14:12) in the first placement game, then suffered a 30:26 defeat against the 2019 world champions from the Netherlands in the game for fifth place on Sunday afternoon. Once again it was a disastrous first half that broke the necks of Markus Gaugisch’s team: they went into the catacombs with 7:16, which is too big a burden when you are playing against the world’s best.
But we look ahead: The DHB seven has the opportunity to qualify for Paris; and with the 19-year-old right back from Bayer Leverkusen, Viola Leuchter, she is the best young player in the tournament.
Among the DHB men, the super talent is known to be someone with a similarly beautiful name: Juri Knorr (23) is supposed to ensure that the German team reaches at least the quarter-finals at the home European Championships in January, which is the hyper-realistic minimum goal. In the Bundesliga, which will require the players to make two more appearances for their clubs by Christmas, Knorr’s Rhein-Neckar Löwen suffered a bitter blow on Saturday: the Champions League winners from SC Magdeburg overran Mannheim and won 38:24 (16:13). The SCM remains at the top of the table and extends its lead to third place, which would only qualify them to take part in the European League, but not in the Champions League of the coming season. The currently third SG Flensburg-Handewitt surprisingly lost in Göppingen with 31:32 (17:15).
