The French national handball team lives up to its role as favorite at the start of the 2024 European Handball Championship against North Macedonia and wins clearly in the end.
France, one of the tournament favorites, won 39:29 (17:13) in the Düsseldorf football arena, which was already filled with a world record crowd of more than 53,000 spectators, and thus took the lead in Group A.
Hugo Descat best shooter
The Olympic champion is aiming for his fourth gold triumph at the European Championships. Left winger Hugo Descat was the best shooter for the German opponents in the preliminary round with seven goals.
However, coach Guillaume Gille’s team got into the game a bit sluggish. The North Macedonians were, somewhat surprisingly, in the lead 10:8 after 15 minutes of play.
France is getting rolling
Gille took a break and things went better from then on. Led by veteran Nikola Karabatic, France had turned the game around at the break.
After the break, the outsider from the Balkans had little to counter and had to accept a clear defeat.
Superstar Karabatic, who contributed a goal, is contesting his eleventh and final European Championship in Germany. In the summer, the 39-year-old will end his career after the Summer Olympics in his adopted home of Paris.