Estelle Nze Minko starred in France’s dramatic 31:28 win over Sweden with seven goals to send her side to another Olympic final. In the immediate aftermath of the victory, she gave us an honest and unusual insight into her mind after such a massive game.
“I haven’t been able to process it yet because, Ok this is a little personal, but my boyfriend came all the way from Budapest to see me, so I’m just thinking about running to him, because I haven’t seen him for two months, but I think I’ll realise everything once we’re on the bus together because with these girls I know we’re going to play music so loud, dance and everything.”
But the enormity of the occasion wasn’t lost on the 32-year-old back court star, who revelled in the shared experience with 27,000 fans in Lille.
Walking the walk
“It was such a beautiful moment to celebrate with the fans on the court and I’m so happy about that and so grateful to live in that. To have the Olympics here in France was already something but the actually make it to the final – we said it was our goal but there is a long way between saying it and doing it, so I’m really proud of us all and it’s a nice feeling to see that what we’re doing here works.
“I think I’m keeping my emotions a little inside me because it’s not over yet. It’s a relief to know that we have a medal already but we came for gold and I’m still focusing on important things like recovery, video, meetings and all that.”
Sweden hit the hosts hard early in the contest and made life really difficult for the reigning Olympic and world champions, who had to dig deep and throw the kitchen sink to force the game into extra-time.
“At some point we tried everything to come back because it felt that everything they were doing was working and although some of what we did worked, their goalkeeper killed us.
“In these situations, when you play some systems in attack and it doesn’t work, you start to doubt a little and in the end, I felt that we just fought with an energy of let’s just try something, a bit of desperation maybe.”
“Do something and join us”
From that point, it felt that the only way was up for the home side and Nze Minko pointed out one moment early in the first extra-time period that shifted the game in their favour once and for all.
“When Sako saved, gave it to Valentini, who scored, then we got the ball back and I scored the open goal, I felt that it would be too much for them mentally. They led the entire match, so I knew that when we took the lead, it would be really tough for them.”
Nze Minko and France are through to their third consecutive gold medal match at the Olympics, having lost the decider in 2016 to Russia and beat them five years later in Tokyo.
It’s either a date with Norway or Denmark on Saturday and the Györ player couldn’t care less who awaits her at this stage. “It’s their problem now. I like both and have friends from both teams but it’s not my business, I’m in the final and it’s their time to do something and join us.”