Paris (AFP)
Cléopâtre Darleux and Siraba Dembélé are making their return to the French handball team after a maternity break, while Allison Pineau and Camille Ayglon are not on the list unveiled on Friday by coach Olivier Krumbholz.
The French, reigning European champions after the coronation at home in December 2018, must compete in the qualifying matches at Euro-2020. They will travel to Croatia on March 25, and will receive Croatia four days later at the Axone in Montbéliard.
To play Euro-2020 in Spain, they must finish in one of the first two places in a group with Croatia, Iceland and Turkey and have won their first two games against Turkey (38-17) and in Iceland (23-17).
The Mondial-2019 of the French, world champions in 2017 and European in 2018, turned into a fiasco, with an elimination in the 1st round and a 13th place in the end.
"We are all expecting a strong response to the jolt of the failure of the World Cup because apart from the result I have the unpleasant impression that the team has retreated and in particular in one area: that of shooting", warned the coach.
Goalkeeper Cléopâtre Darleux resumed competition a week ago with Brest, while Siraba Dembélé will resume with Toulon next week.
On the other hand, Olivier Krumbholz did not call Camille Ayglon. Nantes right-back (34) was replaced during the last World Cup-2019 and is in competition with players like Océane Sercien-Ugolin (22).
Half-center Allison Pineau (30) is recovering from an operation in January and is also not included in the group.
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