Martin Lange / Photo credits: PIOTR MATUSEWICZ / DPPI VIA AFP 10:39 a.m., January 16, 2024

France faces Germany, the host country, in the third and final match of the preliminary round to the Euro handball on Tuesday evening. After losing their mark against Switzerland, Les Bleus would do well to avoid a slip-up against the Mannschaft.

Germany, the hosts of the European Handball Championship, qualified for the main round by beating North Macedonia (34-25) on Sunday in Berlin, as did Hungary, who defeated Serbia (28-27). After a successful start, France was hung this weekend by the modest Switzerland (26-26). A misstep that already puts Les Bleus with their backs against the wall before facing the host country on Tuesday evening.

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A decisive encounter

It was a first joker that Les Bleus burned on Sunday. Apathetic in defence, clumsy in front of goal, the French even gave the Swiss a match point, fortunately missed. We will have to seriously raise the level of play tonight as coach Guillaume Gille admits to our colleagues at BeIN Sports. "We clearly had individual performances that were a bit average in certain areas of the game. To perform well against the Germans here, we will need a much more accomplished copy," he said.

"We're still in the game"

The Germans have been impressive since the start of the competition. Buoyed by their home crowd, with more than 50,000 spectators in Düsseldorf for the opening match, a record for a handball match. They had scattered the same Swiss 27-14, but that was not enough to scare the left-hander Dika Mem. "The competition is not over. We're still in the game. The focus is on Germany. We're going to play against a great team who play at home, but we're used to playing this kind of game and we're going to give it our all," he said.

A victory on Tuesday night would make life much easier for Les Bleus: no apothecary calculations and a guaranteed qualification for the main round of this Euro 2024.