Paris (AFP)
Nantes struggled to defeat Aix at home (25-24) on Thursday for the 12th round of the French Handball Championship, and hopes for a stronger podium.
With 18 points, the players of Alberto Entrerrios form a trio fighting for 2nd place in the company of Nimes and Montpellier, with six lengths behind the inaccessible Parisians. The Nantais will challenge Montpellier next Thursday in the Hérault.
"Like all the last matches, we start very well and we have a small hole in the middle of the first half." But "we put them at a distance," reacted the half-center Nantes Aymeric Minne, in Aix between 2015 and 2019.
The locals have indeed inflicted on the team coached by Jerome Fernandez his third straight defeat after Montpellier and Nimes. The Aixois point to the 6th rank, six points of their executioners in the evening.
The Nantais have committed too much ball losses in the first half. And the goalkeeper Wesley Pardin, author of decisive parries, has also confirmed his excellent form today, which will allow him in ten days to find the team of France in preparation for the Euro 2020.
At the break, Aix led by three goals (13-10). But Nantes, who experienced a turmoil in the inter-season, has quickly recovered the recovery and equalized after seven minutes in the second half (15-15).
The international pivot Nicolas Tournat then allowed the H to take off (20-17) to fifteen minutes of the term.
The Nantes goalkeeper Cyril Dumoulin was then almost impassable but Aix is still tied at six minutes from the end (22-22).
The Nantes, outnumbered for the last two minutes, nevertheless managed to snatch a valuable success.
© 2019 AFP