The sixth world’s star is on the t-shirt logo of French handbal team! Exactly 16 after winning of the World Championship 2001 against Sweden, France did it again on the same place – Paris’ Bercy hall in front of 16.000 fans who made fantastic atmosphere! Norway 33:26 (18:17) couldn’t keep the rhythm after the half-time on the level necessary to follow domestic team, who had the first hero in goalkeeper Vincent Gerrard!
Even most of the expectations was that they will be over-excited due their lack of experience of playing in the final, Norwegians showed fantastic mentality from the start in noisy “Bercy”. Powerful Tonnesen and Esper Lie Hansen made problems to French defense in the first 14 minutes, when Didier Dinart called time-out – 9:7.
This didn’t change a lot on the court, as French back-line with KArabatic and Narcisse werent’ on the highest level to cope with strong Scandinavian 6-0 line while to only chance was play with line-players who made five 7-meter chances to the domestic team.
Since Tangen netted for 14:11 in 22nd minute, led by Vincent Gerrard, France made 7:3 series in furious finish of the first half-time – 17:18.
Only four minutes of play in second half was enough that Christian Berge took a time-out to stop crisis of his team, as France went on 22:18 thanks to Gerrard and powerful counter-attacks of Michael Guigou.
Norwegians lost self-confidence in attack, while French team was flying on the wings of sold-out Bercy unti 29:22, when Berge called once again, his guys, to give them last boost of energy. However, Vincent Gerrard continued to keep his net in fantastic way to secure routine finish for his team-mates who celebrated another fantastic success of the French handball!
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