Defeat, Sunday, in the final of Euro 2022 by Spain, the Blues nevertheless won a third medal in as many competitions. Fournier, Gobert and the others keep high objectives: one day get gold, preferably during the Paris Olympics, in 2024.
by
Ceremonies follow each other and look alike. At the end of September 2019, on the podium of the World Cup, where its partners celebrated their third place in the tournament, Evan Fournier was gray. Marked by defeat in the semi-finals against Argentina, after a success against the American favorites in the previous round, the back of the French male basketball team had removed, as soon as they were received, its bronze medal, to hide it in his sock. “It’s hard, because we came with an ambition, he said, sighing. This defeat, I will think about it all my career, that’s for sure.” Sunday September 18, the now captain of the Blues n ‘ did not hide his European silver medal, but, like his partner Rudy Gobert, he removed it from his neck, marked by a new disillusionment.
“I lost a lot of finals and I have the impression that it becomes a habit. It makes me crazy”, is also annoyed Guerschon Yabusele. Among the best French people in the competition, the strong winger of Real Madrid could not do anything, like its partners, to prevent Spain from going on the roof of Europe. At the end of a brilliant demonstration (88-76), the Roja of the Hernangomez brothers won, Sunday, the fourth European title in its history (2009, 2011, 2015 and 2022). For the Blues, who claimed at the start of the campaign “coming only for gold”, silver with bitterness flavor.
Since the advent of the Tony Parker generation, the French team has taken a liking to consistency. At his orders since 2009, Vincent Collet won the seventh medal on his mandate on Sunday. And if, hot, the regrets dominate after a new final lost to the Iberian rival, the Blues must not forget the meanders of their journey in the competition. After a group phase alternating hot and cold, in a very raised pool, the teammates of Rudy Gobert drew twice from impossible situations, in eighth and quarter -finals.
an irregularity frustrating
In express maturation since summer 2019, this team assumes its high ambitions. “We have hearts of winners. I arrived in a team that had the culture of the win and we tried to keep this mentality,” summed up the pivot of the Blues before the semi-final. “Even the years when people think that we are going to be less strong, we come with the objective of the gold medal. No matter what is there, regardless of the circumstances, we have enough talent to claim the most High walking every year, even if some are harder than others. “This year, the Blues had a rejuvenated workforce. And if they benefited from a route facilitated by the eliminations of Serbian and Slovenian favorites, they have given themselves the means to be “where [they] wanted to be” – their mantra: in a situation of competing in the title.
You have 60.87% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.