The reigning Olympic champions did not collapse under colossal pressure from the 11,000 fans that flocked to the Spodek Arena in Katowice as France threw off the 28th IHF Men's World Championship in style, taking a 26:24 win against co-hosts Poland in the first match at Poland/Sweden 2023.

Group B
France vs Poland 26:24 (14:13)

For one evening, the Spodek Arena in Katowice was flooded with a sea of red and white flags as the fans flocked to see their favourites take on France in what could not have been a better setup to throw off the 28th IHF Men's World Championship.

Big expectations, huge cheers and loud roars following every Poland goal were the perfect ingredients for the recipe to start the world handball flagship competition. Everything served on a big saucer – the English translation for the arena's name in Katowice, which, of course, has a saucer-like form.

With 11,000 fans carrying them through thick and thin, it was more thick than thin for the co-hosts, who were eventually stopped in their tracks by a good France side who shook off the absence of several starters to take a 26:24 win and enjoyed an excellent start of the competition, in their 170th match at the IHF Men's World Championship.

In the first half, it was mainly the defence that put everything on the line, as only four Poland players entered the scoresheet in the first 30 minutes, with right wing Arkadiusz Moryto and left back Szymon Sićko combining for eight of the first ten goals and being virtually unstoppable.

However, France created a four-goal lead from thin air after a 4:0 run, powered by two converted fast breaks, which helped them to open a 12:8 lead that proved unassailable, especially as their attack had an impressive efficiency of 75% in the first half, as compared to Poland's meagre 51%.

But something happened during the break, especially after Poland felt France could be stopped. And the defence praised by coach Patryk Rombel before the match really showed up, as the co-hosts managed to cut off the attacks of their opponents and tied the match (17:17) with 20 minutes to go.

For over 10 minutes, the fans were ecstatic and Poland really put up a great show, both in defence and in attack, where Moryto and Sićko were replaced as the main weapons by Piotr Jędraszczyk and Ariel Pietrasik, who truly gave the reigning Olympic champions a headache.

Nevertheless, experience is key in such close matches, and France had plenty of it, with Nikola Karabatić featuring in his ninth edition of the IHF Men's World Championship. Others stars like Dika Mem or Kentin Mahé have been in a final or two in their careers.

And this is how the story of the match was written. First, Poland were prevented from scoring a goal for six minutes and eight seconds, while France engineered an unanswered 3:0 run to take a 24:21 lead.

It was the decisive moment of the match, as Poland could only score three times in the last 12 minutes. It was too little for the team to clinch a win against the reigning Olympic champions, with France taking their 33rd win in the last 38 matches in the world handball flagship competition.

With France taking the lead in the ninth minute and never looking back, Poland will be wondering how well they handled this loss. Szymon Sićko and Arkadiusz Moryto were the top scorers of the match with seven and six goals respectively, while Dika Mem scored five goals for France.

In the next matches of the group, France will face Saudi Arabia, while Poland will face Slovenia in a do-or-die clash on Saturday.

hummel Player of the Match: Nedim Remili (France)