The Hungarian women's handball team defeated the reigning world champion France at home after 14 years.
The Hungarian women's handball team traveled to France to compete with the reigning world champion and Olympic silver medalist during the preparations for the European Championship jointly organized by Austria-Hungary and Switzerland at the end of November and December. The two teams have played 54 matches against each other so far, from the Hungarian point of view there were 30 wins, two draws and 22 losses before the start.
The last time they met was in the first round of the group stage of the Paris Olympics, when the host team won 31-28. The Hungarian team had a better start to the well-paced warm-up match organized in Toulon. It was in the first half that they led with six goals, but in the end they went to the break with a 15-12 advantage. Our team played brilliantly in the second half as well, and in the end they won 30-27 against the French, keeping the three-goal difference.
"Over the last five weeks, I haven't had as many opportunities as I have now, but today I managed to show what I can do.
I thank the girls and of course the staff for their trust, I am very happy that we won. The value of Thursday's success can be shown if we can also achieve a good result against the French on Saturday," said Zsófia Szemerey, the goalkeeper of the national team, who finished with 16 saves and a save efficiency of 38 percent, and had great merit in the success.
The Hungarian national team won against France after 14 years.
The value of our victory is enhanced by the fact that among the stars of our team, Viktória Győri-Lukács, Katrin Klujber and Janurik Kinga got a rest this time, while Blanka Böde-Bíró stayed at home due to a minor injury. The French and Hungarian national teams will meet again on Saturday, the venue of that meeting will be Tremblay-en-France.
"If we want to achieve a good result at the European Championship, we have to play against teams like the French national team. In the matches against Romania, the defense was less effective than at the Olympics, we want to improve on this and if we succeed, then we can be a serious opponent against anyone"
- said national team captain Vladimir Golovin to M4 Sport before the match.
Women's European Championship, Hungary-Austria-Switzerland, November 28-December 15, 2024.
Group A (Debrecen): Sweden, Hungary, North Macedonia, Turkey
The program:
Thursday, November 28
• 18:00 Hungary-Turkey
• 20:30 Sweden-North Macedonia
November 30, Saturday
• 18:00 Sweden-Hungary
• 20:30 North Macedonia-Turkey
Monday, December 2
• 18:00 North Macedonia-Hungary
• 20:30 Turkey-Sweden
If our team advances, they can play the 2-2 winners of Group B (Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Czech Republic) in Debrecen and Group C (France, Spain, Poland, Portugal) in Basel, Switzerland, in the semi-finals in Debrecen (December 5. , 6., 8., 10.)
Featured image: mksz.hu
