Europe 1 with AFP 6:58 p.m., January 15, 2023

Although already qualified for the main round, the Blues conclude their first phase of the World Handball Championship, Monday (6:00 p.m.) in Katowice, with a meeting against Slovenia, already decisive for the race to the quarter-finals.

A meeting to follow in common thread on Europe 1, official partner of the Worlds.

The French team of Nikola Karabatic faces Slovenia, Monday at 6 p.m., for its last match of the group stage.

A match to follow in common thread on Europe 1, official radio of the world championships.

A debrief of the meeting and analyzes will also be offered on the 

Europe 1 Sport program, 

a program which takes place every evening from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. live.

And this last match should keep all its promises.

Indeed, the beating inflicted by the Slovenes (32-23) on the Poles in front of their public has inflated the stakes of this last meeting of the first round: the winner will approach the main phase, from Wednesday in Krakow, with four units on the counter, two more than the loser, only the points acquired against the qualified teams will be kept.

Either a comfortable mattress before finding yourself in a group a priori made up of, in addition to Slovenia and Poland or Saudi Arabia (two teams that the Blues will not face again), Spain, Iran and Montenegro.

Two successes against the last two cities should then be enough to qualify for the quarterfinals before playing for first place against the Spaniards.

Conversely, a setback on Monday and the Blues would be doomed to beat Spain and pull out the calculators to see Gdansk and the quarters.

"It's a bit of a small preliminary round final. It will also allow us to assess ourselves in the second very big test" after the opening against Poland (26-24), coach Guillaume Gille agreed on Sunday.

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Slovenians, "very good ball handlers"

Vincent Gérard expects the Slovenes, who have received an invitation to participate in the World Cup, to offer a "different" challenge from that launched by the Poles, who relied heavily on "physics, the notion of combat".

"They are very good ball handlers, we will not have to get annoyed, get upset because they often go after each action (and do not shoot quickly, editor's note)", develops the goalkeeper of the Blues.

Pivot Ludovic Fabregas agrees: "They have few or no big builds, but players who play the ball very well and have the ability to drop the ball inside (for the pivot) or for the wingers."

Gille agrees, impressed by the attack of the players trained in the old Yugoslav school, "technical", "capable of moving the ball quickly, of chaining actions".

"We will need to be very strong defensively" he adds, facing the team led by the right back of Limoges (and former Montpellier player) Jure Dolenec, the goalkeeper of Nîmes Joze Baznik or the center half of Nantes Rok Ovnicek.

This position of centre-half, the organizer of the game, is culturally a strong point of the Slovenians, coached by former national legend (and centre-half) Uros Zorman and whose last very good performance dates back to Euro-2020 , with a semi-final.

They were then guided by the leader of Kiel Miha Zarabec, injured for this World Cup like the right winger of Veszprem Gasper Marguc.

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The Luka Karabatic case

To contain the Slovenian attacks, can France count on its captain and defense beam, Luka Karabatic?

The pivot of Paris SG, forfeited for the first two meetings due to lumbago, is "still in a process" of convalescence, where "we gradually go up in workload", according to Gille.

"We are attentive to his feeling, things continue to move in the right direction. Will it be enough for tomorrow (Monday)? We will have part of the answer this afternoon", Sunday during training behind closed doors, added the coach.

He said he was not considering replacing him in the group: "Luka remains in contact with us, he is giving positive signals which allow us to consider an imminent return."

Left winger Dylan Nahi experienced a "small alert" in an ankle against Saudi Arabia on Saturday (41-23) which does not cause "great concern" according to Gille.

He will take a first test on Sunday afternoon.