Euro 2024 handball: the French team emerges by a miracle and qualifies for the final by beating Sweden after extra time

Elohim Prandi a envoyé les Bleus en prolongations, qui l'ont ensuite emporté contre la Suède. EPA – CHRISTOPHER NEUNDORF

The French team qualified for the Euro 2024 handball final thanks to its victory against Sweden in the semi-final (34-30), Friday January 26, after extra time than the Blues thanks to an exceptional but miraculous goal from Elohim Prandi.

Before facing themselves in the final on Sunday (5:45 p.m.) against the Danish world champions or the German hosts, opposed in the other semi-final in the evening, Guillaume Gille and his men will certainly wonder how they came so close to elimination, less than a second.

There wasn't quite one left on the clock, when PSG left-back Elohim Prandi sent a last-chance free kick into the top corner with an off-balance shot to deceive his guard in Paris, Andreas Palicka.

Also read: VIDEO. Euro 2024 handball: Elohim Prandi's completely crazy goal at the last second to send the Blues into overtime in the semi-final

He who was "always in pain" since the elimination at the same stage of their World Cup in Stockholm, will undoubtedly suffer from this one for as long as well, despite a second during which his numerous saves allowed his team to return to the match, after a first act to trolling.

Prandi: "I'm so proud"

Neither he nor his teammates ever recovered from the equalizer and the Blues regained the upper hand in this meeting alternating sauna and ice bath. "I'm really proud", savored Prandi, who had missed the last Euro after a stab wound. "I know that I am capable of doing this kind of shoot… (…) I analyzed the wall. I told myself I was going to shoot on the side. I have confidence in my shoot and in myself. And there you have it…"  

If matches that are impossible to lose do not exist, this semi-final had the form and even the scent in Cologne. Because at half-time, the French defense dried up the Swedish attack, limited to only 11 goals (17-11), before giving in after returning from the locker room.

The Olympic champions, still undefeated in this Euro, conceded a 7-1 (18-18) having completely revived the "Blagult". The French rotation, without guides Nedim Remili and Dika Mem at this moment of the match, seemed to run out of air in this “high altitude clash”, in the words of coach Guillaume Gille.

No defeat in the Euro final for the Blues

To make matters worse, they lost their ex-captain Valentin Porte to an injury after twisting his right ankle. The fact remains that they found resources in extra time, after Prandi's cannon shot which struck Sweden terribly, and that they will indeed set foot on the Kölnarena in the final.

This is their second in a row after last year's World Cup, lost to the Danes (34-29). And even the third in less than three years, counting that of the Tokyo Olympics. So far, no final has escaped them at the Euro.

Each time the French handball team presented itself on the last step, it was crowned (2006, 2010 and 2014), with in its ranks handball legend Nikola Karabatic, determined to take on one of his ultimate challenges in Germany, almost 40 years old and in no way satisfied.