Paris (AFP)

A week after winning the Championship, the Messines have managed the double by winning the French Handball Cup against Brest, 34-24 on Saturday at Bercy, in a final dominated by the head and shoulders.

This is the ninth time that the club has written its name on the list of the Cup and the sixth it signs a double. Only, one is tempted to say, so much his domination in Championship is overwhelming since his first trophy in 1989: 23 titles out of 31 possible.

This 2018-2019 season is the best in the history of the "Dragonnes". Two weeks ago, they played the Final Four of the Champions League in Budapest, a first for a French women's club, and an important step for them, even if the semi-final lost against the Rostov Russians left behind. regrets.

At the national level, they extended their series in the Championship by a fourth consecutive title by crushing Nice in the final and won the Coupe de France, which had escaped last year in favor of Brest.

In Bercy, they showed once again that they were well above the rest with their eight Blue European champions, or rather seven Saturdays because the winger Manon Houette, injured in the thigh Final Four, was absent.

- A one-way finish -

The Brestoises were the only ones to have tripped Metz in the Championship, but in a match without challenge at four days of the big meeting in Budapest. Faced with Grace Zaadi, Gnonsiane Niombla to still Laura Glauser in the goals, this time they did not make the weight.

In a richly filled room, the Messines took a dazzling start: 8-2 after 12 minutes. At the head of seven lengths (18-11) when returning to the locker room, Lorraines lived last 30 minutes quiet. They were the last for the pivot Béatrice Edwige in the yellow and blue jersey before taking charge of the Hungarian club Györ, the three-time European champion.

For Brest, winner of the Coupe de France and finalist of the Championship last year, this defeat concludes a very difficult season. With the largest budget, the club did not hide its ambitions to dethrone Metz this year, but these plans were thwarted by unforeseen events, the pregnancies of the guardian Cleopatra Darleux and Sweden's Isabelle Gülden including, but also conflicts between the coaching and several players including the best known, Allison Pineau, who has not played since March.

? 2019 AFP