World: for the Blues, a first place to win while waiting for the rest

Monday afternoon, leaving their bus to rush into the training center, the Slovenes barely glanced at their executioners, who were basking in the sun while waiting for their shuttle. After two hours of light training interspersed with muscular work and completed by recovery (cold baths), the French left the place in a playful mood.

The day before, a new anthology match, won 3-2 after saving three match points then executed the vice-champions of Europe in the tie-break (15-7), had registered in the gold book of the Olympic champions. Yet carried at arm’s length by 11,000 faithful, Slovenia again liquefied when it came to concluding against the Blues, as at the 2020 Olympic qualifying tournament. Not enough to ignite, however, because the particular format of this World Cup maintains an opaque veil over the sequence of events.

The Blues will turn

Guaranteed to be in the eighth (from September 3 to 6), the Blues will be first in their group if they win this Tuesday against Cameroon. Not quite a “hairdresser’s match”, even if coach Andrea Giani, while following the outcome of Argentina – Netherlands (2-3) on his smartphone, confided on Monday that he was going to widely rotate and probably household Earvin Ngapeth, monstrous since the opening. But the opponent of the Blues in the eighth will most certainly be known only after the last day of the first round, Wednesday, after a general classification of the sixteen qualified (2 first of each group and 4 best third) with predetermined crossed oppositions (1st against 16th, 2nd against 15th, etc.).

Protected in order to guarantee the public in their rooms in eighth, the host countries, Poland and Slovenia, will be classified seeds n ° 1 and n ° 2, if of course the second ensures its place in the chopper phase. The general classification will be defined by the final position in each group then by the number of victories, points, and the ratios of sets then won/lost points. Even first in the group, France can therefore fall on a bone, type Argentina, tanned at the Olympics, which can no longer finish first in its group.

Hence the importance of ensuring three straight sets, this Tuesday evening, against the African vice-champion, in order to finish as high as possible and calmly await the future prey, in Ljubljana or Gliwice (Poland), near of Katowice, in Silesia, depending on the part of the table in which the France team will be paid. A prolonged stay in Ljubljana would not displease him.