France opened round two of the 2016 Olympic Games men’s handball competition with a 35:20 victory against their 2015 World Championship final opponents Qatar yesterday.
Excitement was palpable, especially after a close January 2015 final in Qatar.
The first half yesterday delivered on those expectations, but in the second period France stormed home to the final whistle keeping Qatar to only seven goals in those 30 minutes.
The opening of the game was level as Thierry Omeyer made a save in the eighth converted to a goal by Nikola Karabatic (3:3), after which Qatar’s Hassan Mabrouk was sent off for two minutes. During his time on the bench, France moved ahead to hold a 6:4 advantage after 10 minutes, before Qatar came back to level the score at 6:6 by the 13th.
France maintained a steady one to two-goal advantage as Michael Guigou scored a penalty against Danijel Saric to earn France a two-goal lead at 9:7 just after the 15-minute mark, before Marko Bagaric responded and the difference returned to one (8:9).
That was the closest Qatar would come to a victory, however, and when France reached an 11:8 advantage in the 19th, coach Valero Rivera called his first time-out of the match. The Asian champions could not decrease the score line and as the last 10 minutes of the half began Nikola Karabatic added his second goal to take the score to 12:9.
With Qatar’s Zarko Markovic out on a suspension, France kept their three-goal lead thanks to Luc Abalo as the buzzer for the half-time break sounded, and when the match resumed France really began to open up the advantage. With 15 minutes left on the clock the reigning Olympic champions had created a 25:16 lead, and the two points were clearly safe in the hands of Les Experts. (IHF)