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The French defense don't look good!

Slovenia aren't much better either, their keepers aren't able to record more than 10 saves per game. The offense is what wins the games, and that is how they plan to get in the battle for position 5

The exclusive previews are written by our reporters directly from Austria the venue of this EC!

France won the two opening matches against Norway and Macedonia, limiting the opponent to 22 goals. It seemed like they were ready to get in the battle for the highest positions, but that turned out to be just a trick. They lost the three following games against Spain, Serbia, and Denmark convincingly, having conceded more than 30 goals in each. Their defense was virtually non-existent, and the battle for positions 5-8 they are currently in is where they are supposed to be.

Right back Remili's injury in the first game affected their performances greatly, and we can't help but  to winder why coach Delattre didn't put the goal keeper Hermann on the list for the second stage of the tournament. After insisting that he joins the team following his grandfather's death just ahead of the tournament, it was expected that he will be on the list for these two games, to give him a break since he spent all this time with the team.

The last match against Denmark seemed like another disaster coming. The score was 16-9 for Denmark in the 25th minute, but that game was not important point-wise, the Danes changed the line up as much as they could, the French were motivated, and even got only one goal down. But, the Danish coach soon put Kirkelokke and some other players back in the game, and the score was soon 27-22 for Denmark.

- Denmark played well, but I think we played well too. They did better in the end. We'll try and give our best in the two remaining games to record as good a result as possible - middle back Saidani said.

Offense-wise, they did better than in the previous games, especially middle back Saidani, and right back Delacroix, but the defense problems are still there, and they currently don't seem to be capable of improving that segment of their game. 

Slovenia had similar troubles against Germany, having been denied semi final for the third time, despite knowing that quality-wise they should be there. First and foremost, it's the goal keepers that failed the team (only 7 saves). That is definitely not enough to beat a team such as Germany. But, Ivezic's team did display some good game, especially in the beginning when they even scored the game opener, which is definitely an improvement compared to previous games, in which they couldn't score for the first 6-7 minutes. That, however, didn't turn out to be really helpful.

- We did really badly. We couldn't score, their defense was perfect. We finally managed to score some goals, we fought till the end, but the win was miles away regardless - left back Levc said. He was the man of the match once again.

Slovenia had a very bad period the lat ten minutes of the first half, in which the Germans managed to get six goals up. Slovenia was closing the gap by half time (14-10), with the change to 5-1 defense, and Kodrina in offense being the key factors.

That allowed Slovenia to put significant amount of pressure on Germany early in the second quarter of the game, but that was it. Bad efficiency in an extra-man situation at 21-21 proved to be crucial, allowing Germany to to score for another lead. Slovenia managed to get one goal down down only once again, but Germany scored two more to set the final score (28-25).

Despite not being able to get back at Germany for the defeat in last year's quarter final, Ivezic's team didn't seem as disappointed as they were in Hungary last year. As they said, Germany did better this time, and won deservedly. 

Slovenians still think Sweden are the main cause for the fact they're not participating in the battle for top spots, but the players ensure us they won't think about that today, but rather focus on France as their next opponent, and the first rival in the battle for position 5.

Slovenia's first game against Hungary here saw 50 goals and everything else went over, even against the strong defenses of Austria and Germany. Today they're facing a team with huge defensive problems. France have allowed 35, 30 and 31 goals in their last three games. Their offense may be too hasty, it doesn't have the discipline, even though they've shown the desire against Denmark, although it may not be too indicative as both teams had no imperative in terms of results and the first half ended with 35 goals. I expect another efficient game today, Slovenia can do a lot in offense, and their keeper is problematic, while France have good shooters at the back and wingers that like to take their chances and the quality to keep the pace up, especially in the playoffs. The margin is not too high and it should be used.