Tokyo (AFP)

Their "rediscovered collective" allowed the Bleues to snatch their place in the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympic tournament on Monday, after a match that looked like the round of 16 against Brazil (29-22).

"For some, it's the last competition with the France team and we didn't want to end up like that, captain Coralie Lassource said. We absolutely wanted to have a better result, to qualify."

"I am emotionally tired and it feels good," breathes Beatrice Edwige, smug face and bent bust on a mixed zone post meandering through Yoyogi Stadium.

Sign that the Blue may have feared a Japanese curse, they who had left in the first round of the 2019 Worlds in Kumamoto.

Relieved, the Olympic vice-champions of Rio formed a furious round at the buzzer and danced several minutes to shout "we are not coming home" in an explosion of joy.

The euphoria also to sign a performance more in line with their standards as world champions (2017) and Europe (2018) after three difficult matches against Spain (28-25 defeat), Sweden (28-28) and Russia (reverse 28-27).

"Through their performance, the girls have certainly found serenity and ambition," wants to believe the coach Olivier Krumbholz.

"There was a dichotomy between their level and their ambition, he analyzes. And today, we carried the achievement much higher which allows us to approach the quarterfinals more calmly."

In search of Olympic gold in Tokyo, the only title missing from their record, the Blue may however inherit Wednesday entry into the final table of the favorites, the Norwegians.

Unless Spain bowed to Russia during the day (2:15 p.m. local), which would offer them a more affordable opponent: certainly the Dutch, if not the Montenegrins who clash (7:30 p.m. local) in the other group.

While waiting against Brazilians who also played their survival in the competition, the band of Estelle Nze Minko offered themselves a second success, decisive for the qualification, by erasing their limits of the last matches.

They lacked long range shots?

On Monday, they watered, imitating the rain falling on Tokyo.

In one match, the French have scored almost as much at nine meters as in the previous four matches (8 against 9 so far).

- Meeting between players -

They also found their goalkeepers, a historical strong point of this team but little success in Japan.

Cleopatra Darleux, entering the second period, signed nine saves (45%).

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"We find this collective that we had lost a bit since the start of the competition," relishes the goalkeeper, citing a meeting the day before between players.

"We laid bare what was wrong. It did us a lot of good and made us fight for each other on the pitch," she says.

After making the gap, the French conceded a 5-1 and saw the Brazilians come back from 18-11 to 19-16.

This time without consequence, unlike their air holes against the Swedes (28-28), or the Russians (28-27 defeat) which had made them doubt.

This time, facing a lower caliber team, they reacted and took off again (22-16).

"We tightened up, explains Océane Sercien-Ugolin. We stopped thinking that we couldn't do it, we believed in ourselves."

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