Denmark and France are familiar opponents, last meeting in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games final on 7 August last year. On Wednesday they clash again in the closing main round match of the Men's EHF EURO 2022, with a place in the semi-finals potentially at stake for France.
Two EHF EURO journalists very familiar with the sides and their recent years on court – Frenchman Kevin Domas and not-Danish but brief resident of Denmark, Courtney Gahan – present their arguments for who will win the battle this time around.
DENMARK
Ready to rumble after a comfortable campaign
France ended up romping to a big win against Montenegro but had to go through a tough first half against the Balkan team. Prior to that, France certainly lost energy as they fought to overcome Iceland but ended up succumbing to their biggest EHF EURO defeat in history.
In contrast, Denmark have had a relatively relaxed run to this point in the tournament. The Scandinavian side have won all their games — the only team in the competition with this record — and finished the preliminary round with clearly the best goal difference of any side, showing how comfortable their wins were. They also had the best goal difference of the top 12 teams ahead of the last main round matches.
This record means they have been able to conserve energy with extensive rotation and will take the court against France in top shape — a factor that could be very important in a game where the small details will likely decide the winner.
Changes in Denmark’s favour since Olympic final
France won the Tokyo 2020 final against Denmark by two goals, 25:23. But there have been some key changes for France related to who was important in that game to now. Nedim Remili was France’s top scorer in the Olympic final and is now missing due to a broken foot. Kentin Mahe was a key influence although he did not score so many goals — his emotion brings a lot of energy and drive for France. And Mahe is absent due to Covid.
Denmark’s key scorers in the Olympic Games, Mikkel Hansen and Mathias Gidsel — who also played the standout roles in attack as they defended their world title one year ago in Egypt — are in prime form.
Hansen was the third top scorer of the EHF EURO 2022 at the end of main round 3, with 39 goals, while Gidsel sits eighth in this ranking with 35. Incredibly, Gidsel has missed only one goal in the entire EURO for an unbelievable shooting accuracy of 97.2 per cent.
In addition, Gidsel has made the second most assists at the EURO — 33 — and ranks top in the combined assists and goals ranking while Hansen is third.
France are known for their defence for sure, but can they stop these two again?
The bench battle
Kevin has already examined how teams adapted to their missing coaches and it seems both France and Iceland have managed the absences fine. But in a game like this, where we can hope for a close ending that will have us on the edge of our seats, will the absence of a head coach be a factor?
A last timeout in the critical dying minutes can be very important, and with Guillaume Gille in isolation, France may notice his absence more than they have yet. Meanwhile, Denmark’s Nikolaj Jacobsen will be ready to advise his side on how to handle any decisive moments late in the game.
The Olympic final between the two came down to the final actions, and it was actually Gidsel who caused the last turnover for France to net the decider in the last seconds, but Denmark will surely have learned from that occasion and will probably not make the same mistake again. And Jacobsen will be there to ensure, as far as he can, that it does not.
