They continued their story: France played their sixth World Championship semi-final in a row – and they reached the WCh final in total for the fifth time in history. After winning Silver in 1993 they won all the finals they played in 1995, 2001 and 2009. France has the great chance to become the first team since 1974 (Romania) to defend their title at a World Championship. And they could remain the only team with all three major titles in the world of handball – EURO, Olympics and World Championships – at the same time.

In Sweden the team of coach Claude Onesta is still unbeaten – they only tied in their last match of the Preliminary Round against Spain. Their squad can count on three former World Handball Players of the Year – Bertrand Gille, Nikola Karabatic and Thierry Omeyer.

The confidence  is high before facing Denmark on Sunday in the final of Malmö.    “You don’t need a special motivation when you play at a World Championship, especially not in the final,” top star Nikola Karabatic said. In his opinion Denmark are “a very strong and young team with new players and especially a new outstanding goalkeeper Niklas Landin. Denmark is a dangerous team.”

But on the other hands Karabatic is sure that “we have great and experienced players in our team. It feels so great to win the Gold medal and we want to continue winning titles. To finish a World Championship second ranked is absolutely terrible.”

His team mate and pivot Bertrand Gille, who has won the titles in 2001 and 2009, shares this opinion: “To stand on top of the winner’s podium after a final is the greatest feeling for a sportsman. We know that we already have won a medal, but I’m sure that our team is experienced enough to win Gold again.”

Gille adds: “We played a great tournament up to now we have shown our will to win all matches, so we deserve to win the title.” But for him it’s not defending the title, but: “Every World Championship is a new adventure. And so we will win a new title, not defend the old one.”

For Gille France is in the favourite role, but he expects a “close match of the strongest team in Sweden. Denmark will have something like a home match, but we stood this pressure in Zagreb two years ago against 15.000 Croats in the final.” And: “We can count on the same weapons as Denmark.”