France joined fellow Preliminary Round Group D side Slovenia in the main round of the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship as they put in a business-like performance against Iceland to win by nine, despite the best efforts of Elin Jona Thorsteinsdottir in the Icelandic goal.

Group D
Iceland vs France 22:31 (10:20)

With five minutes remaining of this match, France coach Olivier Krumbholz stood on the sidelines, arms folded, shouting instructions at his team.

This summed up visually the frustrating performance of his side against Iceland, but a win is a win and it was one which saw his Olympic champions qualify through to the main round in Trondheim with a game to spare.

Usually, Krumbholz walks up and down the touchline, arms loose and flowing, deep in thought, working out his tactics or talking and coaching his players both on and off court.

But both games in Norway so far for his side have seen them fail to reach their usual mesmeric levels – he said his side were ‘stressed’ against Angola in their opening one-goal win – but maybe that is because we are so used to their usual high quality?

Whatever the case may be, high quality from France was evident early on with the 2017 world champions racing to a 7:0 lead, preventing Iceland from scoring until the eighth minute.

Krumbholz had rotated his side for this one, not starting with a number of key players, including Grace Zaadi and Tamara Horacek, however, with the exception of Hatadou Sako in goal, all players had seen court time by the 25th minute.

Sarah Bouktit impressed for France throughout the 60 minutes but the star player in the match and well-deserving of her best player award was Iceland goalkeeper Elin Jona Thorsteinsdottir.

Her 14 saves, from a variety of shots, including four of the five French penalties, kept the score difference at the end in single figures and for a side at just their second IHF Women’s World Championship, thanks to a wildcard, a 12:11 second half result in their favour represents success.

Iceland now look to their do-or-die final group match against Angola on Monday, while France take on Slovenia for the group win and extra two points into the main round.

hummel Player of the Match: Elin Jona Thorsteinsdottir (Iceland)