France win fifth world title

France won the fifth gold medal in their handball history by beating the host team Qatar 25:22 in the final match of the 24th Men's Handball World Championship in Doha.

One of the best handball generations ever won the great battle after tremendous 60 minutes in front of 17.000 enthusiastic fans at LUSAIL Multipurpose Arena in Doha.

Once again, French Coach Claude Onesta and his players won a memorable achievement by winning the double crown consisting of the World and European gold in a row, together with Olympic gold from London 2012.

On other side, a fantastic Qatari team wrote a new chapter in the history of handball as the first non-European team reaching the final of a World Championship.

The two powerful defensive zones provided an electrifying experience in the noisy atmosphere of the sold-out arena. The real sport spectacle began with the French domination as the coaching staff of “Les Blues” managed to stop the host team’s two most dangerous shooters – Zarko Markovic and Rafael Capote.

The two top scorers of the squad coached by Valero Rivera netted only one goal each until the 17th minute, whichcould be seen as the main reason why France was four goals up at 9:5, in the moment when the famous Spanish coach called a time-out.

The outstanding quality of the French players Nikola Karabatic and Daniel Narcisse gave a clear advantage to the reigning Olympic and European champions from London and Herning.

The highest lead in the domination was seen in 23rd minute, when the result was 13:7 for France, but that was just a beginning of a series of the two domestic gunners.

Markovic and Capote scored four goals in the last six minutes of the first half. Together with a strong Danijel Saric between the posts they were giving to the domestic fans hope that miracle could happen until the end of the final clash at 14:11.

The hosts’ enthusiasm was even bigger when Rivera's boys came only goal behind the rival at 18:17 after 40 minutes of the great battle. The French defence lost the necessary level of concentration to provide easy goals like in the first 20 minutes, on the other side with only Xavier Barachet in attack as real threat for Danijel Saric.

Six minutes later, domestic playmaker Kamalaldin Mallash had a chance to level the score, but experienced Thierry Omeyer saved the ball for the possible 20:20.

That was just a hint of the small crisis in the Qatari attack, which Valero Rivera tried to overcome by calling a team out in 51th minute at 22:19. Both teams left the court for another time-out five minutes later when Claude Onesta wanted to give his players new instructions to at 24:21.

Qatari right wing Abdulla Al-Karbi missed two chances to score in decisive moments three-four minutes before the final whistle. Instead Daniel Narcisse netted his fourth goal, which started the big celebrations of his team.