After the inaugural success built in the second half against Croatia (30-26) on Friday, Guillaume Gille's players did not tremble to ensure a second success in as many games.
French handball players have moved closer to the Tokyo Olympics, a qualification that will have to be validated against Portugal on Sunday evening.
Easy winners of a weak Tunisia team 40 to 29 on Saturday night in Montpellier, the French handball players got considerably closer to the Tokyo Olympics (July 23-August 8), a qualification that will have to be validated against Portugal on Sunday evening.
After the inaugural success built in the second half against Croatia (30-26) on Friday, Guillaume Gille's players did not tremble to ensure a second success in as many matches in the Hérault, and put a foot and part of the second in the boarding gate for Japan this summer.
"We are rather on a favorable waiver but nothing is finished"
To see Tokyo, France can afford Sunday night, to lose six goals (or seven on condition of registering at least 22) against Portugal, which has given it so much trouble in recent years (defeat in particular at Euro-2020 which precipitated the fiasco of the Blues, eliminated in the first round).
No French player, however, wanted to take out the calculator after the game, all focused on the goal of winning the last game without a second thought.
"We are rather on a favorable waiver but nothing is over. We are not going to take this game lightly and we will play it to win it", warned the right winger of the Blues Valentin Porte.
"The idea is to hide the entire context of qualification, calculation, and focus on what we have to do," added coach Guillaume Gille.
Sunday's game will finally have a stake
The evening could have been totally perfect if two and a half hours earlier, Portugal had not cracked against Croatia: Paulo Pereira's players led by six goals in the second half (16-10, 35th), before seeing Croatia, vice-champion of Europe 2020, come back and win on the wire (25-24).
A Portuguese victory would have had the consequence of qualifying France and Portugal even before Sunday's game, which will ultimately have a stake.
Because if the French can afford a defeat, Portugal will have to win to play the Games for the first time in its history, which would be the culmination of its progress in recent years (6th in Euro-2020 and 10th of the Mondial-2021)