France beat Sweden with 29:27 (15:14) and will play in the final of the Olympic women’s handball tournament in Tokyo 2020.
Thus, France will be the first nation in handball since 1984 to have teams in the final for both men and women in the same Olympics. The women’s team of France, which is a silver medalist from Rio 2016, will play with Norway or the team of the Russian Olympic Committee, which will meet in the other semifinal. The title match is on Sunday (August 8).
The French showed a lot of character and physical strength to keep the final drive of Sweden, which did not give up until the end. In the second half, the Swedes had two moments to pull after taking the lead with 18:17 and 21:20. But they allowed France to pull at 27:24 with goals from Meline Nocandy and Kalidiatou Niakate, who proved to be the basis for the victory.
Grace Zaadi scored 7 goals for the winners, and Pauletta Foppa added 5. For Sweden, Johanna Westberg and Jenny Carlson scored 6 goals each.
