Norway

With little chance of reaching the latter at the start of the competition act, the Norwegians have shown determination and strength of character in the final stages of the World Cup. In the semifinals, they were revenge for lost bronze at the 2016 Europeans are against Croatia, succeeded to after extra time score 28-25 (22-22). Bjarte veteran Myrhol brought victory with two goals in the end of overtime, taking advantage of the space left in the Croatian defense due to a red card earned by Stepancic Inter to PSG.

With a single failure recorded at this World Nordics they have experienced a fairly easy until the final stages. Component Group A, Group which also included France, Russia, Brazil, Poland and Japan, Norway finished in second place that stage of the competition, with 4 wins out of 5. With two wins in the first two rounds, 22-20 and 28-24 against Poland against Russia, led by Christian Berge national registered only failure in this tournament in the 3rd stage of 28-31 against the host team, France . Two easy victories in the next two stages, with Brazil 39-26 and 28-23 with Japan, made the outsider in the final second position to conclude that the group

In 8th finals heights, Norway recorded a more than successful categorically against Macedonia Kiril Lazarov’s score 34-34, the game in which no less than 5 players Norwegians have scored at least 5 goals. Quarterfinals brought a little more difficult duel against Hungary, but Myrhol & co. that have passed the test, managing to impose a score of 31-28.

The best scorer of the tournament is Kristian Norway Bjørnsen with 41 goals (5/8 from 7 meters), followed by Sander Sagosen 40 (8/14 from 7 meters). In these moments, the Nordics are the team with the most goals scored in this World Championship (248), after France, which has only one extra successful. Even if you do not lead to the number of goals scored Norwegians do to those coming from counterattacks, 60 in number (percentage 78%).

France

Karabatic & co fantastic tournament. until this last act of the competition. “Les bleus” went smoothly every opponent in Group A, winning five wins from as many possible. In the first two stages, they had no mercy toward opponents, winning 31-16 against Brazil and 31-19 against Japan. In step number 3 came first real test of the tournament, but it was passed without great emotion, 31-28 against this opponent in the final. With two wins in the last two steps in front of Russia and Poland, the French were qualified first in 8 heights final phase.

The first opponent in the playoffs was Iceland, but even they failed to put them real problems the hosts of the tournament, were defeated by a score of 25 to 31. The quarter-finals brought one of the most in form teams until that stage, Sweden. National led by Didier Dinarte and Guillaume Gille has encountered some problems in the first half of that duel, lost by a score of 16-15, but took their revenge in the second, which they managed to win by a score of 18-14 . in finals competition, France met Slovenia, selected who had no time even for a real chance to win, the French being at leading from the start and by the end of the game.

France is National with the most gold medals won at the World Championships, five in number, but not the one with the most medals, this position was occupied by Sweden with 11 (4 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze ). Ranked 3rd in the number of gold medals won in World are Romania, four medals. 2015, “Les bleus” managed to get 5th win in such a competition, when they defeated Qatar in the last act, the host that edition

Head to Head

This will be the 7th meeting between the two in a match official representative. The French lead in this regard by a score of 5-1, the groups being the last meeting of this tournament when hosts won with a score of 31 to 28. Before this World, the two teams met in the 2016 European Championship, where Northerners have won one victory in the history of direct meetings in official matches, score 29-24.