IHF
Porec (Croatia)
France threw off the action in Porec at the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, with a clear win against Qatar, 37:19, proving the favourites’ status in Group C of the preliminary round on Tuesday.
Right from the start, the French team imposed their rhythm and did not allow Qatar to score easily leaving them empty-handed on day one.
France came out strong in the match, with Remi Desbonnet making two quick saves that kept Qatar goalless for the first four minutes. The Aisan side showed a brief spark of hope, fuelled with good defensive action, but it did not last long. They managed to stay level for just four minutes before France powered ahead with a 5-0 goal run, pulling ahead 7:2 after 12 minutes.
Qatar’s head coach, Veselin Vujovic, who took over the team in August 2024, expected a tough match against France and saw it as a chance to prepare his players for the upcoming important clashes against Australia and Kuwait.
However, he wasn’t satisfied with his team’s performance. Left back Frankis Marzo struggled to find his rhythm, scoring only once from seven attempts in the first 20 minutes. Despite their struggles, left wing Ahad Madadi celebrated his 300th international goal when scoring for 11:6.
French lead extended to eight goals by halftime, 18:10, as Desbonet continued where he left off at the start, closing the first half with 40 per cent save efficiency. The real problem for Qatar were their backcourt shots, as their backcourt players were at only 14 per cent efficiency.
The second half brought more of the same, as France maintained their dominance. They forced Qatar to keep trying to score from the outside, where they remained on the low percentage and continued to put pressure on them.
Just five minutes into the second half, France hit a double-digit lead when Thibaud Briet netted his fourth goal of the game, cementing their control of the match.
The bright side of the Qatar team was their goalkeeper, Anadin Sulijakovic, who was giving his best against the current European champions with 11 saves. In the end, both teams used all of their 16 players, rotating and resting their starters. Still, the French team was more efficient as only one out of their 14 outfield players did not score at least once. On the other side, eight players netted at least once.
The 18-goal win for France, 39:18, was reached with Thibaud Briet seven goals, Aymeric Minne netted five times, while a late wake-up call from Frankis Marzo made him his side’s top scorer with four goals.
Qatar’s next game against Austria on Thursday will be crucial, while France will take on inexperienced Kuwait.
