After eliminating Györ, triple holder of the European title (2017, 2018, 2019) in the semi-finals, the handball players from Brest lost in the final of the Champions League, falling on stronger than they against the Norwegians of Kristiansand (34- 28), Sunday in Budapest.
The players of Laurent Bezeau, who led his last match on a coaching bench before taking up duties at the National Sports Agency (ANS), had no more energy after the immense fight won against Györ the day before in half. “I’m disapointed. We lost a lot of energy yesterday, even if that’s not an excuse, because for the final, we have to find the surplus energy, ”commented Brest left-back Ana Gros, top scorer in the C1 this season with 135 goals.
The Brestoises could not do anything against the Norwegians who have played very little in recent months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and who were worn by left-back and center-half Henny Reistad, designated at all just 22 years old best youngster of the C1 season. Reistad was unstoppable, both in the semi-finals (10 goals, all in play) against CSKA Moscow and in the final against Brest (12). The Norwegian, quite logically named MVP of Final 4, will take charge of Denmark and Esbjerg after the Olympic Games this summer.
Without a solution to the Norwegian attacking game
In this final, which looked like a remake of the Euro-2020 final – five French European vice-champions in December in Denmark play in Brest and seven Norwegian European champions play in Kristiansand – the teammates de Heidi Loke took the best start (9-4, 10th). The heroines of the day before, starting with goalkeepers Cléopatre Darleux and Sandra Toft, did not find the solution to the Norwegian attacking game, and the defense put to work for 70 minutes the day before against Györ appeared blunt and much more porous than in half (32 goals conceded against 23 on Saturday).
The Brestoises once again found themselves in the position of the team which played away, because the Hungarian supporters present in the room had chosen their camp with Kristiansand, of whom several players like Nora Mork or Heidi Loke have long worn the Györ jersey. The second period was a demonstration of the talent of Reistad, a new nugget of the Norwegian hand which has continued to clean the skylights of Toft and Darleux.
New cycle next season
The European adventure of the BBH ends in this second place, and the French hand will have to wait a little longer before having the female equivalent of Montpellier, the first and only French club to win the Champions League for men in 2003 and in 2018. For Brest, it is now time to prepare for a new sporting cycle, since Pablo Morel will succeed Laurent Bezeau on the coaching bench from this summer.
“Obviously, I am very, very disappointed, because I would have liked to finish on an extraordinary note with the players. But I think the team has given a lot throughout the season, with the values of co-sport, commitment and maturity and I will try to remember that, ”commented Bezeau at a press conference. At the same time, Bella Gullden will join the ranks of new European champions Kristiansand as center-half, while left-back Ana Gros will join CSKA Moscow in her quest for a first Champions League.
The spring of the hand tricolor remains positive all the same, since the final lost by Brest in C1, the first for a French women’s club, comes three weeks after the coronation of Nantes in the European League, the new little sister of the C1. And in two weeks, it will be the turn of Paris SG and Nantes to measure themselves respectively against the Danes of Aalborg and the Spaniards of FC Barcelona, in the Final 4 of the Men’s Champions League, while Montpellier narrowly failed in the quarterfinals final of C2. A spring dynamic that the French Federation hopes to transform into summer euphoria at the Tokyo Olympics (July 23-August 8), with two extremely ambitious French teams.
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