{"id":687207,"date":"2026-01-10T17:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T17:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/687207\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T17:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T17:50:16","slug":"handball-debut-at-la-defense-arena-france-beat-austria-iceland-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/687207\/","title":{"rendered":"Handball debut at La D\u00e9fense Arena: France beat Austria, Iceland next"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-lazyloaded=\"1\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/FRANCE_anthem_2025.jpg\" class=\"attachment- size- wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  data-\/><br \/>\n<a href=\"#\" onclick=\"window.open('http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/www.handball-planet.com\/handball-debut-at-la-defense-arena-france-beat-austria-iceland-next\/&amp;t=Handball debut at La D\u00e9fense Arena: France beat Austria, Iceland next', 'facebookShare', 'width=626,height=436'); return false;\" title=\"Share on Facebook\"><\/p>\n<p>Share<\/p>\n<p><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#\" onclick=\"window.open('http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?text=Handball debut at La D\u00e9fense Arena: France beat Austria, Iceland next -&amp;url=https:\/\/www.handball-planet.com\/handball-debut-at-la-defense-arena-france-beat-austria-iceland-next\/', 'twitterShare', 'width=626,height=436'); return false;\" title=\"Tweet This Post\"><\/p>\n<p>Tweet<\/p>\n<p><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"whatsapp:\/\/send?text=Handball debut at La D\u00e9fense Arena: France beat Austria, Iceland next https:\/\/www.handball-planet.com\/handball-debut-at-la-defense-arena-france-beat-austria-iceland-next\/\"><\/p>\n<p>Share<\/p>\n<p><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#\" onclick=\"window.open('http:\/\/pinterest.com\/pin\/create\/button\/?url=https:\/\/www.handball-planet.com\/handball-debut-at-la-defense-arena-france-beat-austria-iceland-next\/&amp;media=https:\/\/www.handball-planet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/FRANCE_anthem_2025-1000x600.jpg&amp;description=Handball debut at La D\u00e9fense Arena: France beat Austria, Iceland next', 'pinterestShare', 'width=750,height=350'); return false;\" title=\"Pin This Post\"><\/p>\n<p>Share<\/p>\n<p><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.handball-planet.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#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\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>Email<\/p>\n<p><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.handball-planet.com\/handball-debut-at-la-defense-arena-france-beat-austria-iceland-next\/#respond\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>The biggest sports indoor arena in Europe, La D\u00e9fense Arena hosted handball as part of the Tournoi de France, a warm-up tournament for EHF EURO 2026. Arena capacity which can be 30.000 in maximum was set on 17.000 seats, but only 10.000 witnessed French win over Austria <strong>34:29 (18:16)<\/strong> in an interesting match.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2689\" data-end=\"2987\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">In a tight match that remained contested until the end\u2014but one in which they never panicked\u2014France overcame an Austrian side that was once again very hard to break down. The Bleus will face Iceland, who defeated Slovenia (32\u201326), this Sunday to conclude the weekend of handball at La D\u00e9fense Arena.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"9\">France: Kieffer (3 saves \/ 12 shots incl. 0\/1 pen), Bolzinger (7 saves \/ 16 shots), Desbonnet (1 save \/ 12 goals incl. 0\/1 pen), Y. Lenne (3\/3), Minne (5\/6), Bos (1\/2), Prandi (2\/6), M. Richardson (4\/5 incl. 2\/2 pen), Mem (3\/7), Tournat (4\/5), Fabregas (1\/3), Descat (5\/7 incl. 4\/5 pen), Kounkoud (2\/3), Peleka, Nahi (2\/5), Konan, Zaepfel, Briet (2\/3)<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"397\" data-end=\"433\">Austria: Bergmann (15 saves \/ 46 shots incl. 1\/5 pen), Mostl (0 saves \/ 2 shots incl. 0\/2 pen), Mahr (3\/5), Bozovic (3\/8), Petrusic, Moser, Frimmel (3\/5 incl. 1\/1 pen), Belos, Herburger (1\/1), Zivkovic, Paulnsteiner (1\/2), Dambock (1\/1 incl. 1\/1 pen), Bylik (3\/7), Wagner (1\/1), Nigg (4\/4), Kofler, Hutecek (9\/12), Miskovez<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"397\" data-end=\"433\">Mandatory Credit \u00a9 Anze Malovrh \/ kolektiff<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" width=\"220\" height=\"90\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/hplogo2015new-7.png\"\/><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Share Tweet Share Share Email The biggest sports indoor arena in Europe, La D\u00e9fense Arena hosted handball as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[7907,2000,299,36,207753,2582],"class_list":{"0":"post-687207","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-austria","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-la-defense-arena","13":"tag-top-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115872073668262260","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}