Gary Lineker's famous quote says that football is a simple game in which 22 men chase the ball for 90 minutes and in the end Germans always win. This great quote fits French handball national team even better and another proof came today with a dominant 33:26 win over Norway in WCh finals in front of fully-crowded Accorhotels Arena in Paris. Dinart and his boys have, in a situation in which a huge bargain of success and pressure was on their back, managed to deliver a perfect tournament going 9/9 and clearly stating that they are the biggest handball nation in the world at the moment. In the first half they were struggling a bit, Norwegian transition was working incredibly good making it completely clear that Norwegians are ready to achieve highest possible goals in the future. France was all the time at least a goal short with final 2:0 series concluded by Valentin Porte bringing them first lead in the match. Second half was however a fairy tale for all of their fans. Amazing mash of rock-solid defence, fast and imaginative transition as well as perfect scoring. They were today simply flying on wings of a perfectly created both experienced and young roster once again looking for nothing but victory. Nikola Karabatic was once again the best when it was most needed leading his team in both attack and defence. Guigou was also unstoppable in the second and on top of all that Vincent Gerard locked his goal forcing Berge and his team to satisfy with a silver medal today. They however have a lot to look forward to with young guns ready to go all the way in near future. Their first-half performance was incredible today and it is sure that hard work will pay off. Tonnesen was leading them with 5 in this one, Bergerud added 13 saves.

Matchday 19 (29.1.2017)

(final) France - Norway 33:26 (18:17) (N. Karabatic 6/Tonnesen 5)

Final tournament - full schedule:

26.1. (SF1) France - Slovenia 31:25 (15:12) (Remili 6/Dolenec 5)

27.1. (SF2) Croatia - Norway 25:28 (22:22) (10:12) (Horvat 6/Myrhol 6)

28.1. (3rd place match) Slovenia - Croatia 31:30 (13:18) (Cingesar 4/Cindric 7)

29.1. (final) France - Norway 33:26 (18:17) (N. Karabatic 6/Tonnesen 5)

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FULL WCH FRANCE 2017 OVERVIEW

Results Group A

Round 1; France - Brazil 31:16 (17:7) (Porte 6/Toledo 5), Russia - Japan 39:29 (18:15) (Atman, Dibirov, Shishkarev 6/Shida 7), Poland - Norway 20:22 (10:12) (Daszek 7/Hansen 6)

Round 2; Japan - France 19:31 (9:17) (Uegaki 5/Fabregas 7), Brazil - Poland 28:24 (16:11) (Toledo 8/Paczkowski 6), Norway - Russia 28:24 (15:11) (Bjornsen 7/Soroka 8)

Round 3; France - Norway 31:28 (16:12) (N. Karabatic 5/ Sagosen 8), Brazil - Japan 27:24 (14:12) (Langaro 8/Tokuda 7), Poland - Russia 20:24 (9:13) (Gebala 4/Kovalev 7)

Round 4; Norway - Brazil 39:26 (18:13) (Sagosen 7/Chiuffa, Pozzer 6), Poland - Japan 26:25 (9:11) (Daszek 5/Ushida 9), Russia - France 24:35 (11:16) (Shishkarev 6/Dipanda 8)

Round 5; Russia - Brazil 28:24 (14:15) (Dereven 5/Pozzer 5), France - Poland 26:25 (13:13) (Nyokas 7/Krajewski 5), Japan - Norway 23:38 (14:19) (Motoki 4/Myrhol 7)

STANDINGS GROUP A; France 10 (+42), Norway 8 (+31), Russia 6 (+3), Brazil 4 (-25), Poland 2 (-10), Japan 0 (-41)

Results Group B

Round 1; Slovenia - Angola 42:25 (22:13) (Marguc, Mackovsek 9/Lopes 7), Macedonia - Tunisia 34:30 (13:14) (K. Lazarov 12/Boughanmi 9), Spain - Iceland 27:21 (10:12) (Canellas 4/Sigurdsson 5)

Round 2; Iceland - Slovenia 25:26 (8:11) (Elisson 7/Bezjak 6), Tunisia - Spain 21:26 (10:12) (Toumi 5/Tomas, Balaguer 5), Angola - Macedonia 22:31 (9:14) (Lopes 5/K.Lazarov 10)

Round 3; Iceland - Tunisia 22:22 (11:13) (Sigurdsson 5/Bannour 12), Slovenia - Macedonia 29:22 (16:10) (Marguc, Bezjak 4/K.Lazarov 9), Spain - Angola 42:22 (21:10) (Fernandez 9/Lopes 6)

Round 4; Slovenia - Tunisia 28:28 (15:13) (Kavticnik 7/Sanai 8), Angola - Iceland 19:33 (8:16) (Lopes 8/Sigurdsson 8), Macedonia - Spain 25:29 (14:14) (K. Lazarov 6/Rivera 11)

Round 5; Tunisia - Angola 43:34 (23:16) (Bannour 10/Teca 10), Macedonia - Iceland 27:27 (13:15) (Lazarov 7/Karason 7), Spain - Slovenia 36:26 (18:10) (Balaguer 7/Marguc 6)

STANDINGS GROUP B; Spain 10 (+45), Slovenia 7 (+15), Macedonia 5 (+2), Iceland 4 (+7), Tunisia 4 (0), Angola 0 (-69)

Results Group C

Round 1; Belarus - Chile 28:32 (14:14) (Karalek 10/R. Salinas 8), Germany - Hungary 27:23 (16:11) (Gensheimer 13/Jamali, Lekai 3), Croatia - Saudi Arabia 28:23 (12:11) (Cindric 6/Alsalem 5)

Round 2; Hungary - Croatia 28:31 (11:11) (Balogh, Harsanyi 6/Duvnjak 5), Chile - Germany 14:35 (6:17) (Feuchtmann 2/Kohlbacher 8), Saudi Arabia - Belarus 26:29 (13:14) (Alsalem 7/Pukhouski 9)

Round 3; Hungary - Chile 34:29 (17:14) (Jamali 7/Er. Feuchtmann 9), Croatia - Belarus 31:25 (18:15) (Cindric 8/Karalek 7), Germany - Saudi Arabia 38:24 (21:13) (Fath 6/Alzaer 8)

Round 4; Saudi Arabia - Hungary 24:37 (10:17) (Almohsin 7/Csazsar 9), Belarus - Germany 25:31 (16:16) (Shylovich 4/Gensheimer 8), Croatia - Chile 37:22 (17:9) (Mihic 8/Salinas 4)

Round 5; Chile - Saudi Arabia 25:26 (13:13) (R. Salinas 7/Alabbas 9), Germany - Croatia 28:21 (13:9) (Wiencek 6/Strlek 5), Belarus - Hungary 27:25 (15:13) (Brouka 6/Juhasz 7)

STANDINGS GROUP C; Germany 10 (+52), Croatia 8 (+22), Belarus 4 (-11), Hungary 4 (+9), Saudi Arabia 2 (-34), Chile 2 (-38)

Results Group D

Round 1; Qatar - Egypt 20:22 (8:11) (Capote 5/El-Ahmar 8), Sweden - Bahrain 33:16 (17:5) (Tollbring 10/Habib Hasan 4), Denmark - Argentina 33:22 (17:11) (Hansen 6/F. Fernandez 6)

Round 2; Egypt - Denmark 28:35 (15:21) (Elderaa 6/Svan 6), Argentina - Sweden 17:35 (11:16) (S. Simonet 5/Zachrisson 8), Bahrain - Qatar 22:32 (9:19) (Abdulqader Ali 5/Madadi 8)

Round 3; Egypt - Bahrain 31:29 (17:15) (Elderaa 6/Abdulla Saad 6), Denmark - Sweden 27:25 (14:10) (Hansen 8/Ekberg 7), Qatar - Argentina 21:17 (9:2) (Mallash 5/Fernandez 7)

Round 4; Argentina - Egypt 26:31 (10:13) (Vieyra 12/Elbassiouny 5), Denmark - Bahrain 30:26 (17:13) (H. Toft 6/Habib Hasan 6), Sweden - Qatar 36:25 (19:12) (Ekberg 9/Roine 8)

Round 5; Bahrain - Argentina 17:26 (8:13) (Abdulqader Ali 5/Fernandez 8), Sweden - Egypt 33:26 (15:9) (Ekberg 8/Eissa 7), Qatar - Denmark 29:32 (16:14) (Capote 5/Noddesbo 8)

STANDINGS GROUP D; Denmark 10 (+27), Sweden 8 (+51), Egypt 6 (-5), Qatar 4 (-2), Argentina 2 (-29), Bahrain 0 (-42)

Eighth-finals/quarter-finals:

Montpellier: Brazil - Spain 27:28 (18:16) (Silva 7/Dujshebaev, Canellas 5), Croatia - Egypt 21:19 (13:7) (Horvat 6/Elahmar 5)

QF Spain - Croatia 29:30 (15:17) (Fernandez 7, Mamic 9)

Albertville: Norway - Macedonia 34:24 (12:10) (Jondal 6/K. Lazarov 6), Hungary - Denmark 27:25 (13:12) (Lekai 6/Hansen 9)

QF Norway - Hungary 31:28 (17:10) (Espen Hansen 6/Csazsar 11)

Lille: France - Iceland 31:25 (14:13) (Guigou 6/Karason 7), Belarus - Sweden 22:41 (11:24) (Karalek 7/Gotffridsson 8)

QF France - Sweden 33:30 (15:16) (Mahe 9/Gottfridsson 7)

Paris: Russia - Slovenia 26:32 (15:13) (Dereven, Shishkarev 5/Cingesar 6), Germany - Qatar 20:21 (10:9) (Groetzki 4/Capote 9)

QF Slovenia - Qatar 32:30 (18:15) (Marguc 6/Roine 8)

Final tournament schedule:

Paris:

26.1. (SF1) France - Slovenia 31:25 (15:12) (Remili 6/Dolenec 5)

27.1. (SF2) Croatia - Norway 25:28 (22:22) (10:12) (Horvat 6/Myrhol 6)

28.1. (3rd place match) Slovenia - Croatia 31:30 (13:18) (Cingesar 4/Cindric 7)

29.1. (final) France - Norway 33:26 (18:17) (N. Karabatic 6/Tonnesen 5)

President’s Cup, Brest: 

Saturday (21.1.) (1) Japan - Angola 37:26 (18:14) (Tokuda 8/Lopes 9), (2) Poland - Tunisia 28:26 (15:11) (Krajewski 8/Bannour 10)

Sunday (22.1.) (3) Chile - Bahrain 35:30 (18:14) (R. Salinas 8/Ali Alsayyad 8) (4) Saudi Arabia - Argentina 22:24 (8:10) (6 Alabas/6 Pizzaro)

Monday (23.1.) (23rd place match) Angola - Bahrain 26:32 (13:15) (Pestana 6/Merza Salman 8), (21st place match) Japan - Chile 29:35 (12:17) (Agarie 9/Ceballos 7), (19th place match) Tunisia - Saudi Arabia 39:30 (20:15) (Haj Youssef 12/Alabas 9), (17th place match) Poland - Argentina 24:22 (13:13) (Krajewski 6/Fernandez 8)

WCH FRANCE 2017 - FINAL RANKINGS:

1. France

2. Norway

3. Slovenia

4. Croatia

5. Spain

6. Qatar

7. Sweden

8. Hungary

9. Germany

10. Denmark

11. Belarus

12. Russia

13. Egypt

14. Iceland

15. Macedonia

16. Brazil

17. Poland

18. Argentina

19. Tunisia

20. Saudi Arabia

21. Chile

22. Japan

23. Bahrain

24. Angola