Cairo (AFP)
With four successes in as many matches at the World Cup in Egypt, the French handball team was nevertheless feverish to beat Algeria (29-26) on Wednesday.
To ensure a place in the quarterfinals as well as to reassure themselves, the meeting against Iceland on Friday (6 p.m.) will be a turning point.
Radio silence this Thursday.
Coach Guillaume Gille canceled the pre-match press briefing "to tighten up" the group, management told AFP.
Sign that there is urgency for the Blues.
"We are decreasing in intensity and level as we go," warned Valentin Porte after the sluggish victory obtained against the Fennecs, the least dangerous opponents of the main round on paper.
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Introduction to review
On Wednesday, the scenario of the previous match against Switzerland on Monday (25-24) was repeated.
Against a much more aggressive opponent who had nothing to lose, the Blues initially got into the game badly, then did not know how to take cover when they had the opportunities to take off.
Results: a gripping end to the match which is turning - for the moment - on the right side, but instils doubt in the minds of the French.
"We must quickly get back into working order," admits Ludovic Fabregas, one of the firefighters on Wednesday (4/4 in attack, 3 shots blocked in defense).
"Winning like that isn't good for morale either."
Because if the quarter-finals came closer, it would be to find an opponent much stronger, namely Spain, Hungary, Poland or Germany.
However, "there is going to the quarter-finals and going to the quarter-finals with the manner", underlines Fabregas for whom the team "is not at the level to which it claims".
To regain "confidence and serenity", the pivot calls for a change of approach.
"The reality over the last two matches is that we did not conduct the debates in intensity and aggressiveness. In the intentions, we get eaten."
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Rotations in question
The staff's choice to start the three least used players in the first round (center-half Melvyn Richardson, pivot Nicolas Tournat and right-back Adrien Dipanda) came up against a harsh reality (1-5 after 7 minutes).
They were no longer there in the "money time" when Kentin Mahé, Fabregas and Jean-Jacques Acquevillo, rather than a Romain Lagarde not in his plate (0/3) at the left-back position, fired the Blues from 'a bad step.
"We're not playing football, guys can come in and go out at any time," Gille said after the match.
"The idea of making another team responsible for the start of the match is not a concern. In our last matches, we had problems entering games with different people on the pitch."
For Valentin Porte, the staff was right to have "turned": "we can not shoot the rind of the same guys for nine matches every two days."
But whatever the starting 7, it will have to raise the tone under penalty of great disappointment in the coming days.
"A start to the match like that, it may pass against Algeria but against Iceland and Portugal, it will surely not pass," warns the right winger.
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Despite everything, quarters in sight
Iceland, deprived of its playing master Aron Palmarsson, injured in a knee, bowed to Switzerland (20-18) with an apathetic attack.
His rear base spoiled too much, like center-half Elvar Jonsson (2/7) and Gisli Kristjansson (2/5), or fullbacks Viggo Kristjansson (2/7) and Olafur Gudmundsson (4/10).
But the Blues have no choice but to take this young opponent a little more seriously.
If successful, they will almost be in the quarterfinals.
It will be enough for them to avoid a large setback - less than 7 goals - against Portugal not to be the victim of a three-way tie, with the Lusitanians and Norway on Sunday night.
© 2021 AFP