The French women’s handball team, defending champion, was eliminated by Germany (29-23) in the semi-finals of the World Cup on Friday in Rotterdam. The Blues, stopped at the gates of the final of a competition for the second time in a row, will face Norway or the Netherlands, opposed in the other semi-final, for the bronze medal on Sunday (5:30 p.m.).
Led from the first minutes, the French never managed to close the gap, disturbed in particular by goalkeeper Katharina Filter and by their own offensive waste. The Germans had fun and found plenty of space to score.
“I consider that we did what had to be done,” judged coach Sébastien Gardillou at the microphone of BeIN Sports. Germany is a hyper competitive team, with players on the back base who are constantly shooting. We tried, with our means, to thwart what could be put in place. We were unable to recover the balls thanks to our defensive system. »
“He was lacking in all sectors”
The coach, who considers that the score is heavy compared to the performance of his team, appreciated the character displayed. “The girls gave a lot, they were conquerors and fighters,” he said. We come up against people who are stronger than us. It’s a shame, there’s still another medal to go for to finish in style. »
“We are disappointed, we aspired to better in terms of quality of play and results,” said winger Lucie Granier. Even if the form is not there, the important thing was to win. We are sad. We didn’t manage to stop their play, they had a lot more penalties than us. We weren’t good enough in defense, we didn’t help our goalkeepers, we lost too many balls in attack. He was lacking in all sectors for the France team. »
