Euro 2022: France start with a win

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On Thursday evening, France and its Parisians began their Euro 2022 campaign wit ha win, toppling Croatia 27-22 in Szeged, Hungary.

Despite the absence of many major players in both teams, this European handball classic lived up to its promise. The teammates of Nikola Karabatic (one goal) started the game better and were the first to make the break (8': 2-7). However, a more delicate end to the first half revived the suspense and France were only two goals up when the half-time buzzer sounded (30': 11-13) - despite the various feats of Parisian 'keeper Vincent Gérard (14 saves in total).

In the second half, the match was balanced for a long time and extremely tense. The Croats found themselves three men down and Paris Saint-Germain Handball right-winger Benoît Kounkoud took advantage to open his account and put his team back in the lead (48': 19-23) - an advantage that Guillaume Gille's men managed to keep until the final buzzer (22-27).

France thus got off to a perfect start and joined Serbia - big 31-23 winners over Ukraine - at the head of Group C, setting up a crunch top-of-the-table on Saturday afternoon, once again in Szeged.

(Credits : A. Gadoffre/TeamPics/PSG)