Cairo (AFP)

For the first campaign of Guillaume Gille at its head, the French handball team failed at the foot of the podium at the World Cup in Egypt, beaten by Spain 35-29 after again missing the start on Sunday in Cairo.

With this fourth place, the French, six-fold world champions (1995, 2001, 2009, 2011, 2015 and 2017), are missing for the first time since 2013 the podium of a World Cup.

It is also the first time since 2004 that the Blues have chained two competitions without winning a medal.

The Strongmen were then in the hollow, before winning Euro 2006 which would inaugurate a decade of crushing domination (4 world titles, 2 Olympic, 3 European) until the last world coronation in 2017.

The decline that began in 2018 after the departure of legends Thierry Omeyer and Daniel Narcisse is confirmed, but the Blues are on the other hand in progress compared to the elimination in the first round of Euro 2020 which had led to the ousting of coach Didier Dinart, replaced by his assistant Guillaume Gille.

Having joined the last four remains a satisfaction when we know that the Blues arrived in Egypt without the icon Nikola Karabatic, injured, and lost along the way goalkeeper Wesley Pardin, defense boss Luka Karabatic and the back left N.1 Timothey N'Guessan.

All with a new staff.

What to consider the Olympic qualifying tournament (TQO) mid-March in Montpellier with optimism against three tough teams, Croatia, Portugal and Tunisia.

On condition of better mastering the start of the match.

- Imperial Corrales -

As too often in this World Cup (Switzerland, Algeria, Iceland, Hungary, Sweden), the Blues let the opponent take the lead from the start (0-4).

Promoted left-back N.1 ahead of Romain Lagarde, Jean-Jacques Acquevillo only released the counter after more than 5 minutes of play ...

The leaders Kentin Mahé (2/5 in the first act) and Nedim Remili (2/6), like captain Michaël Guigou on the left wing (2/4), suffered the law of the Spanish goalkeeper Rodrigo Corrales, imperial with 10 saves in the first half alone.

And if Vincent Gérard made up for his non-match against Sweden, the Blues were never able to catch up with their departure.

At the end of the first period, however, they were only 2 goals behind (14-12), then only one after the break and a goal from Ludovic Fabregas (16-15).

End of the comeback: as against Sweden, they gave up in the face of the stops from Corrales and the battering of the Dujshebaev brothers (14 goals between them).

Faced with the Iberians with a denser workforce, the Blues did not have enough individualities to play the saviors.

Only Hugo Descat, French revelation of this World Cup and author of 7 goals in just one period, allowed the Blues not to sink in the score.

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