the French overthrow the Norwegian giant in the final for a third world title – Libération

After a generally successful competition, the Bleues of coach Olivier Krumbholz challenged their Norwegian rivals in the final of the world handball championship, this Sunday, December 17. They won 31 to 28.

Exactly twenty years ago, the Blue handball team won their first global medal. Also twenty years ago, Léna Grandveau was born in Beaune (Côte-d’Or). Two decades later, the rookie was the X factor of the French women’s handball team against the Norwegians this Sunday, December 17, to allow them to win their third world title in Herning (31-28), in Denmark.

Each ball began to weigh more and more, the arms trembled as they buried the last Scandinavian hopes, and it was then the player from Nantes who showed the way, scoring a series of goals (5 in total). But France mastered its subject well against a team which had tortured it so much in previous finals. Active in defense, tricky, they managed to defeat the normally well-oiled Norwegian machinery. And in attack, the XXL bench of Olivier Krumbholz’s players once again made the difference.

A week after beating them in the group stage, the French team found Norway, its tormentor in recent years, in the final to try to win a new world title in Herning (Denmark), twenty years after the first. “He’s honestly fed up,” said Chloé Valentini, left winger of the Bleues beaten by the Scandinavians in the final of Euro-2020 (22-20) and the World Cup-2021 (29-22) and in the semi-final of Euro-2022 (28-20).

They had, according to captain Estelle Nze Minko, left Slovenia with “a lot of bitterness” last year, after this new failure. A feeling partly erased by the victory last Sunday in Trondheim (Norway) at the conclusion of the main round (24-23).

“We know very well that it will not be the same match. We won’t have to put enormous pressure on ourselves either, because when we play with pressure, we’re not ourselves, we stress a little and we play with the handbrake. We have nothing to lose, just enjoy it, play together and win,” noted pivot Pauletta Foppa. Mission accomplished this Sunday evening, before the next challenge: retaining their Olympic title in eight months, in Paris.