Handball-France through to final after edging out Germany
ByReuters
Published 19/08/2016 at 23:48 GMT
Reigning champions France became the first team to reach the men's handball Olympic final at the Rio Games when they ousted Germany, the world's top-ranked team, in a thrilling 29-28 win on Friday.
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Image credit: Eurosport
France, ranked fifth, will meet either Poland or Denmark in Sunday's final. Poland and Denmark were set to play their match in the last four later on Friday.
Seeking a third successive gold medal, the French made a fast start with a mix of intelligent ball movement and clinical finishing as they opened up a three-goal lead in the first 10 minutes.
France paid close attention to pivot Patrick Wiencek, who failed to register a single shot during the semi-final, but they gave Uwe Gensheimer too much space as the German scored seven goals in the first half to help his team stay in touch.
"In the first half, we weren't there from the beginning. The French team, with their great experience, managed to win the one-on-one situations," Gensheimer, who finished with a game-high 11 goals, told reporters.
"At halftime, we said that we would give all we've got to try to find a way to get a miracle (win) after the big French lead (16-13 at the break). When we were down by three goals, our motivation was a little down and we needed to get it back."
France showed exactly why they are the twice defending Olympic champions as they opened up a seven-goal lead just 10 minutes into the second half through a combination of brilliant attack and solid defence.
However, a determined German side, inspired by Gensheimer, refused to go down easily as they clawed their way back before tying the score at 28-28 with just a minute remaining.
The match seemed destined to head into overtime but France struck in the dying seconds with Daniel Narcisse's seventh goal of the match to book their place in the final and spark wild on-court celebrations.
"Winning was what we imagined at the beginning of the match but at the end it was surprisingly close, that was not what we wanted," said Luka Karabatic of France.
"We knew that we had to keep the ball to the end and then try something when it was one or two seconds left. That's what Daniel was right to do and he made an unbelievable shot."
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