17 February in the town of Lamballe-Armor, Ukraine's women's handball team played the first of two scheduled friendly matches against France.

In the first half, on the court, there was a fair fight. The French started more actively and opened the score at 11 minutes with a goal by Alexandra Atamanyuk. However, in just four minutes, Ukraine regained the balance as Sofia Ruban scored.

But in the second half, France's team began to play aggressively and within five minutes they scored three times against our goalkeeper. The goals were by Fostin Pellegri, Lea Violand, and Odile Delorme. All that our girls could do was slightly reduce the gap with efforts from Oksana Shevchuk.

Thus, under Alexander Zolotukhin's guidance, Ukraine conceded a 2:4 score.

Women's handball friendly match

France — Ukraine — 4:2 (1:1)

Goals: Atamanyuk (11), Pellegri (21), Violand (24), Delorme (26) – Ruban (15), Shevchuk (31).

France: Carré — Atamanyuk, Bitterlin, Tilleli, Pellegri; Tessino, Albertibide, Bouassino, Commare, Gardes, Juan, Condé, Keginger, Delorme, Violand.

Ukraine: Mitrofanova — Burachenko, Skibina, Tkachenko, D. Kovshik; Terekh, Shevchuk, Ruban, Kalyagina, S. Kovshik, Poberey, Kyrychenko, Zaporozhytsya, Melnychuk, Supriyanina, Kaverzyna.

The second friendly match between France's and Ukraine's women's handball teams will take place on 18 February in the town of Ludeac (start — around 20:00 Kyiv time).