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France completed a clean sweep of the three-match preliminary round at the handball world championships in Egypt with a narrow victory over Switzerland.
Guillaume Gille’s men won 25-24 at the Dr Hassan Moustafa Indoor Sports Complex to advance to the main round as Group E winners ahead of Norway and Switzerland.
“Switzerland are a tough and stubborn team,” said Gille. “The experience got us through. We have to work harder in the main round to advance to the knockout stages. “
The 27th world championships are the first to include 32 teams.
After the preliminary round, the first three of the eight pools progress to the main round consisting of four groups of six teams.
After five matches, the winner and runner-up from each of the main round groups will advance to the knockout matches of the quarter-finals.
Pride
Switzerland have not played at the world championships since 1995. They were admitted to the 2021 event at the last minute after the United States team was forced to withdraw after a coronavirus outbreak in the team.
“The France team are very experienced and have been among the best teams for 20 years with some of the best players in the world,” said Swiss coach Michael Suter.
“We performed well in defense and attack and can look forward to the next main round games.”
France, who are in search of a record-breaking seventh world championship title, will play the first match of the main round on Wednesday against Algeria who finished third in Group F.
Switzerland continues its campaign against Iceland, finalist in Group F.
Switzerland played very well today and showed a distinguished performance and exhausted us, but we finally managed to win thanks to our great experience. We went to the game knowing exactly what to do, win and reach the finals. “
The first three of the eight groups from the preliminary round will advance to the main round comprising four groups of six teams. The teams finished last will compete for the Presidents Cup rankings
Thanks to their 25-24 victory, France continues its harvest and can hope to see further in this world championship. However, Les Bleus lost goalkeeper Wesley Pardin to injury in the first half.
Ni Gille’s men are out of the game (25-24). A lesser evil for Les Bleus who will start the main round with 4 points against Algeria on Wednesday.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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