Less than 48 hours after their dry elimination in the semi-finals against Norway (28-20), Les Bleues have not found the resources to bounce back and return empty-handed from an international tournament for only the second time since the return of Olivier Krumbholz at their head in 2016.

“We lacked everything for a third-place match, lamented the manager Grace Zaadi (3 goals on 9 shots). From the start, we started to lose balls on the counter-attack, we did things who don't look like us."

Very far from the 27-19 demonstration of the main round a week earlier against this same Montenegro, this match showed the French Olympic champions feverish against a team having "malice and even vice", according to Olivier Krumbholz the week past.

"Their merry-go-round worked"

“Their whole game worked: staying on the ground, falling, blew captain Estelle Nze Minko (4 goals) who was up against the referees. Either it is up to the referees to study their game knowing that everyone knows that Montenegro is doing Either we are too good, too stupid. If it can make the difference to winning a medal, we have to start doing it tomorrow."

Estelle Nze Minko criticizes the referees for falling into the Montenegrin "merry-go-round" during the match for 3rd place at Euro 2022 handball in Slovenia on November 20, 2022 Jure Makovec AFP / Archives

Also faced with hundreds of hostile supporters shouting at them, the tricolors multiplied the loss of balls and stumbled on Batinovic inhabited (11 saves, 37% success), like his team.

"It was an association between the referees and the Montenegro team this match, was indignant Olivier Krumbholz. They played nine permanently."

The penalty missed by Grace Zaadi to return to a length (26-24, 69th) sealed the meeting.

But it was to the center half that the Blues owed their survival in overtime (23-23) since she had equalized with a shot from 7 m on the buzzer under a deluge of decibels.

Like the whole team, the two best Bleues since the start of the competition, pivot Pauletta Foppa (1 goal) and goalkeeper Cléopâtre Darleux (10 saves, 29%), struggled.

Beyond the unbreathable atmosphere, like the thirty or so law enforcement officers deployed in front of the Montenegrin section of the stands at the end of the match, the tricolors suffered from their state of mind out of step with that Montenegrins.

"We are not moving forward"

Les Bleues, out in the half, are used to higher standards while the Montenegrins were in a position to win their first international medal in ten years.

They were already happy to invite themselves into the last four as delivered by Jovanka Radicevic to Béatrice Edwige during the trip from Skopje to Ljubljana.

France's Coralie Lassource struggles to pass the Montenegrin defense to score in the bronze medal match at Euro 2022 handball on November 20, 2022 Jure Makovec AFP/Archives

On the Stozice vinyl, they faced an inhabited selection for the very last match in the two-headed eagle jersey of this same Jovanka Radicevic.

Icon in the small Balkan republic (620,000 inhabitants), the 36-year-old left winger was part of the Olympic champion team during the sumptuous year 2012 of the Montenegrins, also vice-champions of Europe that year.

Twenty months before the Paris-2024 Olympics, for which they are automatically qualified, the French Olympic champions were able to measure the gap separating them from world champion Norway, who are playing the Euro final on Sunday against Denmark. .

"The observation that I make is that we are not moving forward", loose Grace Zaadi in reference to the final of the World Cup last year where the Blue lost to "Norge" (29-22) .

The next and last deadline before the Games, the World Cup-2023 in a year in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, will speak volumes about their potential.

"If we want to claim to do something at the Paris Olympics, we have to move, supports Grace Zaadi. Otherwise we can say + bye bye + from the quarter-finals."

"I hope that the pain that we will have in the days to come and for a certain time will serve us at least to be better, displays Estelle Nze Minko. If these moments are hard, it is for them to serve."

© 2022 AFP