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Skok: The French displayed some shortcomings in the knock-out stages

The hosts were losing the first half against Iceland and Sweden, even longer against Sweden, they weren't brilliant, but they still easily got to the semis. That's their biggest strength, to win even when they don't play top notch. Slovenia will need a perfect game today to keep their chances of going through

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Les Experts continued with a perfect streak at this year's World Championship by beating the great Sweden. That was their seventh win at the tournament, the most valuable one because the stakes were so high - the semifinal. They will fight for the medal now, but their main goal is the gold, everyone knows that. It's the only thing they are interested in.

28,000 fans could've enjoyed the great show on both ends of the court. The French controlled the game from the beginning, but the young Swedes were a great match, not intimidated by the hellish atmosphere the home fans managed to create. Actually, they even took the lead by the end of the first half, 15-16.

Omeyes was very weak, only two saves, 13%, which is very bad for his average, and Dinart pushed Gerard to the goal. He helped the French turn to +3 with his saves in the second half. The Swedes came back again by the 47th minute, had a short-lived lead, then the hosts got the advantage back again thanks to Remili, and ended up winning 33-30.

- We struggled against their fast game, got our game better in the second half, and didn't make as many offensive mistakes. It was a very, very tough game, and I congratulate my players for their fight - Dinart said after the game.

Mahe was brilliant with 9/10 (7/7), using the more minutes he got from Dinart, and the young Fabregas was great, too, with 5/5 and Remili with 6/8. What was a bit of a surprise was that Guigou only spent about 20 minutes on the floor, after playing the whole game against Iceland. Dinart didn't comment on that decision especially, but Guigou should get the advantage as the left wing today again.

- The team reacted great. We were lucid, not panicking when we were losing. That's very positive considering how young most of the players are, we're proud and we'll continue playing well, we can't stop here - Karabatić commented.

They played two practice games against Slovenia before this championship. They struggled quite a bit in the first, breaking Slovenia only at the very end when Karabatić had to come back in (and they got some help from the referees), and in the second (Slovenia didn't have Zarabec), they dominated from the beginning, and easily won by seven goals.

- They can be very tricky on a good day. They've got a great coach who gets the best out of them and they definitely won't give up, but we know our goal. Nothing besides the win interests us - Dinart announced this duel.

The rejuvenated Slovenian team came to this championship without big expectations, the goal was to get to the quarterfinal and see how it goes from there. They got a favorable draw, Qatar got the Germans eliminated, and made their road to the fight for the medals easier, no matter how much Vujović tries to deny that.

They only played one bad game, against Spain when they lost convincingly. They had a few unconvincing games where they barely won (Tunisia, Iceland), but Vujović made a visible improvement with the team who are beginning to look consistent. They definitely deserve to be here, and now they can only hope for a miracle. 

Their game against Qatar was supposed to be very tough, but then there were just so many goals. Slovenia won by two goals in the end, but that doesn't nearly paint the picture of what the game looked like, and how different the teams were. 

- We deserved to win. We dominated from the first minute. It doesn't matter whether you won by seven or by one in the knockout phase, what matters is that you got through. I'm proud of my team - Vujović said.

The Slovenians did a good job defensively with Capote, allowing him only five goals out of 13 spent, Roine added eight (five and penalties). They weren't brilliant defensively throughout the entire game, but they looked amazing at times, and that's when they got the advantage.

They did a great job offensively, though, with 12 fast breaks and a bunch of easy transition goals. Only the goalie Lesjak wasn't among the scorers, and Kodrin who spent less than a minute on the floor. That tells you about how creative Slovenia is offensively. Šarić had a humble number of five saves (16%).

They'll have to play top notch defense for the entire 60 minutes today if they plan on having a slightest of chances because France can attack from any angle and any side.

This time, they matched their best World Championship result, the semifinal from Spain in 2013. They didn't get the medal then, and will try to fix that now by getting their first one. They do have a silver medal from Euro 2014.

- They're in a good shape physically, I hope we can use our speed against the French. They showed vulnerability in the knockout phase, I see no reason for fear - Skok said. 

Marguč sees their chance after their duel in Toulouse when they matched the French. The Slovenians know they could try to outrun the French, but they also know that they're the weaker team physically. They could struggle against set up zones because the French know how to tighten their lines and move around. Slovenia can have a chance if they try to score as many easy goals as possible, like they were trying to do in the practice games before the championship.