Match Analysis: Slovenia Vs. France

by Mário Cesar Navarro 25th IHF Women's World Championship, Handball Analysis

France, the Olympic champions, played Slovenia in the second round of Group A of the 25th IHF Women’s World Championship Spain 2021 after both teams won the first round.

Since 2010 Slovenia has only won one game against France in 2017, adding nine defeats in 10 games.

France fantastically started the game without giving Slovenia any chance through an aggressive defence and exploiting offensive transitions to the maximum, either through counter-attacks or fast attacks. And that’s how they got to 15 minutes of the match, leading by six goals, with the Slovenian team only managing to score their first goal in the 14th minute.

However, France went nine minutes without scoring a goal, and Slovenia took advantage, eventually reducing the deficit to four goals. Thus, the score at half-time was 8:13 in favour of the French team.

In an electrifying first half, the French team scored ten goals in fourteen attacking transition situations and seven saves from their goalkeeper in 20 shots conceded.

There was an evident reliance on long attacks for Slovenia with an average of 38 seconds per possession. Still, eleven turnovers severely limited their attacking play and poor long-range shooting. Defensively, their goalkeeper still managed four saves from sixteen shots (25%), but it was insufficient to get a better result at half-time.

Although the difference at half-time didn’t show the superiority of the French team throughout the first half, in the second half, the French team started again at a highly high rhythm, where they always kept a minimum margin of six goals difference.

At the end of the game, the French team won by eleven goals. Again, we must mention the excellent performance in the offensive transitions, the defensive performance, and goalkeepers with twelve saves in thirty-six shots (33%).

The Slovenian team fought with all their might until the 45th minute when they disappeared. However, their goalkeeper was outstanding and kept some hopes alive, with eleven saves from thirty-eight shots (29%).

At the end of the game, France finishes the second round with two wins from two games, while Slovenia continues in the fight for qualification to the next round with one victory and one defeat from two games.

Stay with more detailed data about this match.

Author Profile

Mário Cesar Navarro
Portuguese handball coach with over 15 years of experience coaching both male and female youth and senior teams. Passionate about game analysis and coaching.