Handball Euro: semi-final day for the Blues

Virginie Phulpin 07:24, January 28, 2022

The French handball team faces Sweden tonight in the semi-finals of the Euro.

Our Olympic champions have been pushed around in this competition.

But they have risen to all the challenges, and they give the image of a team to which nothing can happen

This team is unsinkable.

I assure you, I am not looking for a new nickname for Les Bleus.

For 30 years, we have been revisiting the vocabulary of excellence with them to the rhythm of the medals that so regularly cling to their necks.

Tanned, Barjots, Strong, Experts… There was even the Incredibles attempt which didn't really work.

But let's just call them the Blues, it suits them so well.

The blue of their shirt and their big heart like that, of course.

But also these bruises in body and soul.

They have them everywhere, and yet they recover from everything.

Because the least we can say is that they have not been spared from the glitches in recent weeks.

Okay, they are Olympic champions, but today's team has little to do, between retirees, injured and Covid.

The ranks thinned,

A coach in isolation who speaks to his players in video, the defense turned upside down by the positive tests.

And yet they manage to forget the tests and retain only the positive.

One knee on the ground after their defeat against Iceland, we could already see them going home, manhandled by Denmark on Wednesday evening for half time and a half, and the specter of elimination returned.

In our heads, maybe.

Not in theirs.

Resignation does not exist among these Blues.

And it is this extra soul that can still guide them tonight.

abused by Denmark on Wednesday night for half-time and a half, and the specter of elimination returned.

In our heads, maybe.

Not in theirs.

Resignation does not exist among these Blues.

And it is this extra soul that can still guide them tonight. 

This evening will be the 21st international semi-final for the French team out of 29 possible since the year 2000.

Suffice to say that the last four is above all the pre-square of the Blues. And maybe more. And there are often affinities with them. But precisely, in front of these dizzying figures, faced with the multiple difficulties encountered before and during this Euro, they could have given up. But no. They are never satisfied, always insatiable. And the one who perfectly represents this state of mind is the head of the team, Nikola Karabatic. At 37, with his cabinets full of trophies, he always wants more. Wednesday evening he fought like a lion to scrape balls from the Danes at the end of the match and snatch this victory which leaves the Blues alive in this Euro. Like a kid who is always hungry. He's going to hurt all over tonight, he said so himself. Does that mean he's going to crack? Of course not.He recovers from everything, like this France team.