The first quarter of the game was balanced, but the squad coached by Claude Onesta managed to take the lead (8:7/15.) and to extend it until 5 goals with 2 minutes to go from the first half (13:8). The Russians were the one who had the last word and at the half break it was 13:10 for the players in blue.
In the second half, France was in clear control of the game and its players were capable to assure themselves a margin of maximum 6 goals (21:15) with 16 minutes to go. But a couple of technical faults and a missed shot brought Russia back into the match. With 9 minutes to go, that important six goals advantage "melt" suddenly out and the scoreboard showed only 22:21 for the French players.
The match seemed to be again opened, but a "double" of Daniel "Air France" Narcisse, excellent the whole dispute, and a goal from Girault, brought the relief with 3 minutes to go. Nikola, who had a very hard time with the rival´s defence, who followed him step by step and made a priority of blocking him, scored his second goal for 26:22 and the game was practically over.
Statistics
France - Russia 27:24 (13:10)
France : Omeyer (11 saves), Karaboué - Dinart, Burdet, G. Gille (1), B. Gille (4), Narcisse (9), Girault (4/1), Karabatic (2), Kempé, Abati, Abalo (7), Guigou, Patty.
Russia : Grams (5/1 saves), Kostygov (7 saves) - Fillipov (1), Krivoshlykov (1), Evdokimov (2), Chernoivanov (4), Rastvortsev (3), Kamanin (1), Aslanyan, Koksharov (5/4), Kovalev (3), Dibirov (1), Igropulo (3/2), Ivanov.
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