“We will have to meet the physical challenge”: Valentin Porte warns the Blues before the World Cup quarter-final against Egypt

Minne, l’une des grandes satisfactions tricolores lors de ce Mondial. FFHB/Iconsport

Former player of the French team with 198 selections, the captain of Montpellier Handball Valentin Porte is the main witness of Midi Libre for this World Cup. He looks at Egypt, the future opponent of the Blues in the quarter-finals.

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The Blues challenge Egypt this Tuesday (9 p.m.) in the quarter-finals of the World Cup. It's solid ?

A very solid team, which progresses year after year, with players who play in the best European clubs.

Read also: France – Egypt in the quarter-finals of the Handball World Cup: at what time and on which channel (free-to-air) to watch the match this Tuesday ?

Has Egypt changed a lot since this summer and your confrontation during the Olympic Games (draw 26-26) ?

We are pretty much on the same squad, a hard core of leaders.

How should Egypt be played? ?

It is a team that suits us well, very European, with a Spanish coach. We are quite similar. First, we will have to meet the physical challenge, avoid getting the key players excited: Hesham (who plays for Montpellier), Yahia (Paris), Sanad (Nîmes), Zein… If we respond in this area, I think that France has many more weapons in all positions to then cause problems and make the difference.

“Not far from perfection”

How do you judge the Blues' performance so far? ?

They are not far from perfection. Some will say that they have not yet played big matches but they have done the work to make things easy for themselves. So far, the Blues have never been behind, faced with a state of emergency. Today, we attack the knockout matches. Attention! The last quarter-final (lost against Germany during the Olympics) left its mark. Tuesday, they have the opportunity to put this bad memory aside.