The shared history between the two teams had France in the lead with nine victories in their previous 12 encounters. However, Montenegro came out on top in their most recent meeting, the battle for the bronze medal at the EHF EURO 2022. Taking into account Montenegro’s perfect run in the preliminary round, the result of this game was hard to predict, but France were dominant from the very beginning.
GROUP I
France vs Montenegro 31:23 (15:11)
- it took Montenegro almost four minutes to score for the first time, through Itana Grbic, and the French were already flying high three goals ahead
- Les Bleues stepped into the game with more confidence and they kept building on that, helped by a marvellous Laura Glauser who stopped four penalty throws and won the Player of the Match award, presented by Grundfos
- Montenegro were trailing by five in the 16th minute, which prompted Suzana Lazovic to call a timeout; even though Orlane Kanor received a red card in the first half, France could still count on a powerful backline and went into the break with a steady lead
- the second half started with a slightly stronger defence on the Montenegrin side, prolonging some of the French attacks, but the latter still seemed to find their way to the back of the net
- 11 players were on the scoresheet for France, with Grace Zaadi leading the way and scoring seven times; Ivona Pavicevic was the pillar in attack for Montenegro with six goals
Steady defence keeps Montenegrins away
Sebastien Gardillou’s team put on a great show at both ends of the court, maintaining their perfect record in the tournament. What worked especially well today was their strong defence, which forced Montenegro to make a few costly mistakes. Laura Glauser was the shining star in Debrecen, with an 40.7 per cent save efficiency, taking France one step closer to a semi-final ticket. Hatadou Sako took the responsibility in the last quarter and kept the bar high, making three saves herself.
On the Montenegrin side, Armelle Attingré and Marina Rajcic took turns to defend the goal, but they only managed to stop nine shots combined. Paired with a shaky form in attack, the squad led by Suzana Lazovic are still on two points, which they took with them from the preliminary round.
It was a tough game and we knew that they will fight, kick us and not give us the game, but we fought until the end and never gave up and I think that's why we won the match.
In the first half we had a chance, but in the second half we started bad, I can tell that we are tired and now I can see that we started the second half with a bad feeling and that's sports. And we can clearly see this and we will work for the next situations and we need to step up in the next matches.
