To win a seventh world crown six years after the last, at home, they will have to defeat other Scandinavians, the Danes, whom they had beaten in the final of the Olympic Games-2021 (25-23) and are aiming for an unprecedented hat-trick .

France never realized it, winning two consecutive titles twice, in the time of the Experts (2009, 2011 and 2015, 2017).

This 2023 vintage, most of whose members were covered with Olympic gold a year and a half ago in Tokyo (the veterans Luc Abalo and Mickaël Guigou, then present, have however since retired), can hope to begin to follow in the footsteps of its glorious elders.

This will require a new great performance on Sunday in this Tele 2 Arena, filled with some 20,000 supporters dressed in yellow and blue on Friday.

Noisy, even very noisy when Kentin Mahé came forward to take penalties (4 out of 4 goals attempted), but which the Blues gradually extinguished.

Leading by four lengths at the break (16-12), they continued their momentum, except for a small dip in the middle of the second period which allowed the Swedes to come back to two lengths (24-22, 48th).

Frenchman Dika Mem dominates Hampus Wanne in the victory against Sweden on January 27, 2023 in Stockholm © Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP

But five minutes later, after a 3-0 inflicted, the match was folded (30-24).

Squad Depth

Regardless of the adversity, the injuries, the trip from Gdansk to Stockholm to play the game while Sweden were warm, their status as European champions and the two defeats conceded, against them, in this same last four during of the last three competitions (World-2021 and Euro-2022).

Guillaume Gille's players delivered a solid match, leading from start to finish except for the first minutes.

And this despite the absence of the first two choices at left back, Nikola Karabatic and Thibaud Briet.

The angry fist of Blues coach Guillaume Gille after the success against Sweden, January 27, 2023 in Stockholm © Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP

The second was in the stands, as against Germany in the quarter-finals, right hand injured.

The first appeared on the score sheet after having played only the first twenty minutes, his foot too painful, against the Mannschaft for his return after having missed the two previous meetings.

But he didn't play a single minute.

Whatever, the veteran of the Blues (38 years old, 10th and last World Cup) and Briet have been perfectly replaced by Elohim Prandi and even Romain Lagarde, with reduced playing time, however, in recent times in selection.

New illustration of the incredible reservoir of French handball and these Blues, affected by seven packages before the competition.

Rear chainstay

The Swedes were deprived of their playmaker Jim Gottfridsson, injured in the left hand, and they could not find the keys to break through the tricolor safe in his absence.

And their goalkeeper Andreas Palicka (9 saves on 31 shots), who had disgusted the French in the semi-finals of Euro-2022, was unable to stop the blue waves.

Unlike Vincent Gérard who, after his zero point in the quarter-finals, where he had left the hero's costume to his replacement Remi Desbonnet, recovered superbly (12/38).

Frenchman Elohim Prandi on the attack against Sweden in the semi-finals of the World Cup, January 27, 2023 in Stockholm © Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP

In the game, the French rear base, made up of the trio Nedim Remili (4 goals on 6 shots and 8 assists), Dika Mem (4/5) and Prandi (2/5), was untenable.

Like this kung fu between the first two (32nd; 17-13).

Sweden had locked the game with the pivots, one of the French strong points, but it gradually loosened the grip and the Olympic champions delivered a complete, almost perfect match.

They will have to repeat it on Sunday to cap a seventh world crown.

© 2023 AFP