Euro handball: the Blues are “more sure of their strength”, judge Guillaume Gille

With this fourth semi-final against Sweden in three years, is this the birth of a rivalry? Guillaume Gille: A rivalry? I don't think so, it's been a high-altitude clash for more than four seasons at this stage of the competition with very contrasting memories. Especially defeats that hurt us. The contexts were also very different from today. Our team is much more stable, much more sure of its strengths and its game. Sweden has also progressed. Its consistency at international level in all major competitions proves its very high quality. We're going to have to deliver a huge performance to leave them behind, that's what concerns us rather than a possible rivalry, that's literature.

Is Jim Gottfridsson the number 1 danger? We often fixate on him. He is someone who makes others play very well, who is also very good individually. But he is not alone in this team, it would be a mistake to want to focus only on him. They have excellent players everywhere, they have a great defense, they project themselves. It is perhaps the team going the fastest in building up the ball, with wingers who are arrows. We pretty much know the details of the problem.

Also read: Euro handball: when and on which channel to watch the France-Sweden semi-final?

This is the fifth semi-final in a row for French handball players, how can we explain this permanence at the top? If we had the recipe so that in every handball tournament, France won at the end, we would try to apply it and all the time (...) We don't become a team that monopolizes titles by snapping our fingers. The process in which this group is part is extremely positive because, from year to year, we feel a base that is solidifying, we feel increasingly strong relationships between the players and an accumulated experience which also gives a lot of hope on how to approach these decisive moments of competitions.