Virginie Phulpin 7:25 am, December 09, 2021

Every day, the morning of Europe 1 looks back on one of the sporting events that make the news.

This Thursday, Virginie Phulpin is interested in French handball players who are getting down to business with the start of the main round.

Serious things are starting for the handball players of the France team at the World Cup. Les Bleues face Poland tonight, it's the start of the main round. We will see more disputed matches. This year, 32 teams are participating in the competition, against 24 before. There were therefore quite unbalanced matches in the preliminary round. For you that adds to the charm of this Mondial. 

Since there are more teams, inevitably they do not all have the same level. There are even strong disparities. During this preliminary round, we saw the Netherlands for example beat Uzbekistan 58 to 17. It's hard to call it a real match. So I understand the criticisms, especially in the great handball nations who may have the impression of wasting their time and giving a bad image of their sport with meetings that are too unbalanced. But first of all that is not always true.

The group of France was quite strong and the Blues had to work to beat Montenegro on Tuesday and reach the main round with a card full of 3 wins.

And above all, I believe in going beyond pure and simple results.

32 teams, that brings in nations not used, if at all, to international games in the big leagues, they have necessarily learned a lot during this preliminary round, even being crushed during their three matches.

And at the end of the day, it is the general level of handball that will increase.

We saw some strong images from elsewhere during this preliminary round.

Among what I learned from this first round, there are the victories of the Blue of course. We cannot deny all chauvinism either. But there is also this match between Norway and Iran which took place on Sunday. Norwegian women are mastodons of women's handball. Three-time world champions, two-time Olympic champions, and so on. And alongside, the Iranians discovered the World Cup. Result, 41 to 9 for Norway. Necessarily. But Iran's goalkeeper was voted player of the match. She may have caught 41 goals, but she stopped many more. She cried with joy when she received her trophy, the Norwegians came to join the Iranians for a souvenir photo. A moment of happiness, sharing and openness. When we add to that the condition of women in Iran,to see these handball players touching their dream is fantastic.

Isn't that also the role of a big international competition?

Let no one worry, knife matches are coming.

France is entering the deep end this evening against Poland.

And the Blue will have to fight if they want to win this world title.

The 32-team format does not turn the competition into a fitness walk.

And frankly, this title, it would be even more beautiful after the opening images that we saw in the preliminary round.