Handball World Cup 2023: German-French thriller in sight

Germany will meet France in the quarter-finals of the World Handball Championship. The current previous permits just one prediction: a thriller awaits.

They will need to make life tough for Germany on Wednesday: Dika Mem, Guillaume Gill, Nikola Karabatic (left).
imago footage (3)

When you have a look at Germany’s seventh opponent in this World Cup, one factor instantly stands out. Not a single skilled from the French nationwide workforce seems in the lineup of the German membership. Even Germany’s rival Qatar was providing “extra”. A number of years in the past, it was inconceivable for any Frenchman to not earn cash in the Bundesliga. Of course, a few of the French World Cup drivers even have a historical past in the Bundesliga. Kentin Mahé (previously at HSV and Flensburg), Romain Lagarde (Rhein-Neckar Leuven), Nikola Karabatic (THW Kiel) and coach Guillaume Gill (Hamburg) can report back to their goalkeeper Vincent Gerard.

He will transfer to Kiel subsequent summer season as Niklas Landin’s successor for the file champions. After defeating beforehand unbeaten Spain in the ‘major spherical last’, Gerrard commented on potential quarter-final opponents Germany and Norway: ‘We haven’t any benefit right here. They are two nice rivals.”

Even if France just isn’t the title magnet of the previous: The present workforce is aware of and could be profitable. For instance, eleven gamers in the present squad are 2021 Olympic champions and are aiming to defend their title on the “dwelling video games” in Paris subsequent summer season.

French expertise is at a really excessive stage

The German neighbor is lucky to attract from an inexhaustible effectively of expertise. If the routine is disrupted, tomorrow’s world stars will comply with. Not solely do they play in Minden, a few of them have already got contracts with high European golf equipment – and know handball at a excessive stage.

“Every sub-region has buildings that may comply with younger abilities early and exploit their potential,” France coach Guillaume Gill defined in an interview forward of the 2019 World Cup in Germany in January. If the children battle, Gil can simply pull gamers like Dika Mem, Ludovic Fabregas, Melvin Richardson (each Barcelona) or Dylan Nahy (Kielce) out of the hat.

Players like Dika Mem can tear every little thing aside with one hand.

These abilities develop in competitors with the older era and shortly discover themselves in the roles of high performers. This has been the case in France for a while. Between 2009 and 2017, Les Experts received three world and two European titles. However, there was a drought for 5 years, which also needs to inspire the French.

For the third time, France have received all of their first six World Cup video games and will probably be trying to proceed on Wednesday night time (8.30pm, LIVE! on kicker). “The French have performed extra quarter-finals than our workforce at one level or one other,” DHB captain Johannes Golla mentioned on Monday. “Les Experts” has “this private high quality at its highest stage for years”, so “everybody can actually make a distinction”.

What can France actually not do?

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The Frenchman seems in useless for weaknesses in his sport. Power from the again, pace from the surface, insistence on one another, damaged in the circle. France has one of the vital athletic groups in the world, and Barcelona left-hander Mem is definitely one of the vital elegant and harmful handball gamers. “Players like Dika Mem can tear everybody aside on their very own. We must guarantee that the younger gamers haven’t got their heads in one place in the course of the sport,” defined DHB defender Andreas Wolf in advance. Therefore, it’s not shocking that nationwide coach Alfred Gislason prefers to face second-placed Spain.

But the DHB choose is aware of the French and their fashion of play all too effectively. For instance, Wolff will face three of his Kils team-mates, Nedim Remily, prop Nicolas Tournat and Nahi on the left wing. Four Les Experts gamers have scored 20 or extra objectives in this event – led by playmaker Kentin Mahé (26 objectives).

The everlasting Nikola Karabatic will also be discovered in the French workforce. The 38-year-old is successful his fifth World Cup in the finals – solely his former team-mate Thierry Omeyer has achieved thus far. The following statistics present how intently the achievements of the French are related to the title of Karabatik: the Paris Saint-Germain backfield participant has ten gold medals on the World Championships, European Championships and the Olympic Games – France received a complete of twelve in their competitions. History. In the primary video games, he led the workforce on the sphere as a captain, however in the final one, he made solely two appearances.

Five matches in a row – none of them ended with a distinction of 1 objective

Due to his in depth expertise, Karabatic additionally is aware of the best way to have nice shut matches with the choice of DHB. The newest fixtures will characteristic a French-German thriller on Wednesday night: not one of the final 5 matches have ended with a single objective distinction.

In 2016, Germany misplaced 28-29 in the semifinals on the Olympic Games, adopted by 25-25 in the preliminary spherical on the 2019 World Cup on dwelling soil and twelve days later in the third-place sport in opposition to Les Experts. (25:26). A rating of 30:29 was sufficient for France on the way in which to Olympic gold in July 2021 in Tokyo, whereas Germany received 35:34 in the ultimate match in Wetzlar in preparation for the European Championship.

France and Germany have met a complete of 74 instances in worldwide matches – 37 German wins, 29 French and eight attracts. The latter won’t essentially occur on Wednesday. Instead, the DHB choice needs to increase its constructive stability sheet: six of the final 9 video games between the 2 groups came about in the context of the World Cup. Germany received thrice, misplaced twice and drew as soon as.

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