This Thursday, for their entry into the Champions League, Nantes lost at home against Berlin.
Not the expected beginnings. Like Paris Saint-Germain the day before, the Nantes Handball Club underwent the law of a German club on Thursday for its entry into the Champions League, Berlin who came to win at the H Arena (40-34) in a reissue of the last semi-final.
The “H” drops immediately at home when he had been unbeaten last season, where he had reached the Final Four for the second time in his history. His journey had suddenly stopped against the Berlin “foxes” (34-24), which although in crisis at the start of the season (coach Jaron Siewert and sports director Stefan Kretzschmar were dismissed) recurred.
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After that of Magdeburg against PSG (37-31), this second success in two days for the Bundesliga clubs in front of their French counterparts came to confirm the wide superiority of the German championship. The Nantes held a little long from the intensity and the opposing speed that Parisians the day before in Germany, who had exploded after a quarter of an hour of play.
This time, the start of the second period was fatal. Nantes approached it with a goal in advance (17-16 at halftime), but found itself led by three goals six minutes later (21-24), then seven just before the last quarter of an hour (23-30, 44th). The absence of Thibaud Briet and Romain Lagarde, injured, was undoubtedly detrimental in defense, but the team of Grégory Cojean has lost too many balls (11) and known too many failures against the Ludwig tired goalkeeper (9 stops on 29 shots, 31% of success).
Witnesses of these deficiencies, these two balloons of -5 spoiled, the first after a passage in force of Ian Tarrafeta (26-32, 49th), the second on a face to face with the German goalkeeper lost by Noam Léopold (28-34, 52nd). Opposite, the best player in the world Mathias Gidsel delivered a recital in the second period (seven goals, 10 out of 15 attempts in the end). The Nantes will go next Thursday in Hungary in Veszprem, a fairly inhospitable land to revive.
