A replacement for the quarters. The French team qualified for the semi-finals of the World Handball Championship in Gdansk (Poland) on Wednesday after beating Germany with pain (35-28), helped by the performance of their second goalkeeper, Rémi Desbonnet.
The Blues, reigning Olympic champions, will be at home in Stockholm, Sweden on Friday (victory over Egypt 26-22), their executioner in the last four at the previous edition and then again at Euro-2022. A strong opponent, reigning European champion, on his way to a seventh world title.
If the Olympic champions hang a new star on their jersey on Sunday, they can thank Rémi Desbonnet for the medal against Germany, which they had beaten in the two previous confrontations. bronze at the 2019 World Cup and in swimming pools at the 2021 Olympics.
“It’s incredible, it’s what you dream about when you’re a kid and you enter a hand room for the first time,” Desbonnet commented with emotion.
“It was very questionable”
“Yes, I am moved, because I am not going to teach you anything by telling you that it doubted a lot (his success at the highest level with his modest height for a goalkeeper, 1.82 m, ed.). But there are also very a lot of people who believed in me, and I’m thinking about that tonight (Wednesday) We’ve been gone for a month, I want to take my phone…” he added.
The Montpellier player unfolded his work in two stages.
In the first, before the break, he slowly warmed up after coming on in place of Gérard, who went off after fifteen minutes without making a single save.
Unlike his counterpart Andreas Wolff, disgusted by the Blues in the first period, who could be happy with a draw at half time (16-16) with only 50% shot success.
The Kielce goalkeeper made almost ten saves before the break, including a double against Nikola Karabatic (10th, 8-5 for Germany) or a spectacular right leg almost at head level against Dika Mem who went off alone in the counterattack (20th) .
Desbonnet, 30, made his first save just eight minutes after coming into play, but he finally heated up the machine after two consecutive saves, the second against Patrick Groetzki (29th) launching only against him.
After the break, the substitute goalkeeper was almost impassable for ten minutes (34-43rd) in which he made seven saves on eight shots.
Stops that initially kept his team afloat (17-19, 34th), before taking a three-goal lead (23-20, 44th).
Desbonnet (14 saves in the end on 30 shots) disgustedly finished off the German gunners and definitively secured the victory of the Blues with two consecutive parades five minutes before the end (30-25).
Richardson also at the rendezvous
To triumph over the German youth, the gold nugget Juri Knorr in the lead (5/10), coach Guillaume Gille and his team could also count on another usual substitute, Melvyn Richardson (4/6).
The son of former “Barjot” Jackson Richardson successfully replaced his teammate in the first period, Dika Mem, who was in check (3/7 in the end).
But during the last four in Stockholm, the Blues, spared few injuries and packages since the start of the competition, will need their entire workforce to beat the Swedes in front of a home crowd.
On Wednesday, left-back Thibaud Briet retired, injured in one hand, while Nikola Karabatic played little in the same position and still felt the blow to his left foot that forced him to miss the previous two games.
