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January 21, 2025France delivered yet another dominant performance at the World Championship, winning against Hungary 37:30, for their fourth win in a row.
Guillaume Gille’s team continued their unbeaten run, solidifying their position at the top of the Group II of the main round at the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championsihp, with six points. Hungary, which could not keep up with the rhythm, suffered their first defeat and holds the third spot in the group with three points, the same as Austria.
MAIN ROUND GROUP II
Hungary vs France 30:37 (15:23)
Hungary’s head coach, Chema Rodriguez, decided to start the game with an aggressive seven-on-six strategy to counter France’s strong defence, hoping to get an upper hand against reigning European champions. However, the risk backfired early on, as turnovers left their goal exposed, allowing the French to capitalise on easy scoring. Backed by Rémi Desbonnet’s saves, France quickly raced to an 8:3 lead.
Midway through the first half, France demonstrated their power, achieving an impressive 82% attack efficiency, while Hungary faltered with an efficiency of 45%. Struggling to break through the relentless French defence, Hungary found themselves out of solutions. Only centre back Máté Lékai and right back Zoran Ilić were up for the task, netting three times in the first half to keep their side afloat.
France thoroughly dominated the match in Varaždin, with nine players finding the back of the net in the first 30 minutes, as Gille’s side
Not much changed after the break as France continued to pounce despite an already well-established lead. With another chance to keep players’ energy high, which can be crucial for long competitions, Guillaume Gille constantly switched his line-up. Once again, France had 12 out of 14 outfield players scoring at least once.
France’s collective effort saw them extend their lead to double digits just five minutes into the second half, 27:17. All but assured victory did bring some changes, as after building a commanding lead, France seemed to take their foot off the gas. A drop in intensity allowed Hungary to capitalise and close the gap to six goals, 25:31, with a 3:0 goal run after a nice set of Kristóf Palasics’ saves.
As the final ten minutes approached, Hungary closed the gap further when Máté Ónodi-Jánoskúti netted his fourth goal, narrowing the deficit to 27:33. The set gap was kept all the way to the last moments of the game when France managed to increase it to final 37:30.
France are now one step closer to the quarter-finals, as the leading team with six points, thanks to Dika Mem’s six goals and Rémi Desbonnet’s 15 saves. The hummel Player of the Match, Máté Lékai, scored five for Hungary, with Kristóf Palasics closing the day with 10 saves in 28 minutes played. Hungary will try to redeem themselves on Thursday against Austria, while France will pit sides with currently second-placed the Netherlands.
hummel Player of the Match: Máté Lékai (Hungary)