Paris (AFP)

Handballers from Metz start Sunday (17:00 at the Arena) against the Croatian Kroprivnica their campaign Champions League with the goal of returning to the Final Four in Budapest in May and succeed there better than last year.

"We realized by going there that we had nothing to envy anyone, but we discovered this competition, it was only Gnonsiane Niombla who had played, this experience will help us and we have the ambition to do even better, "said international winger Manon Houette.

Metz had been the first French club in the Women's Final Four, but his career had stopped in the semi-finals against the Russian Rostov formation, which he had dominated during the group stage.

A lot of things have changed in the offseason. The pivot Beatrice Edwige went to strengthen, if necessary, the Hungarian club of Györ, triple European champion in title. Gnonsiane Niombla has also taken the direction of Hungary, Siofok where she replaces Estelle Nzé-Minko, now ... Györ. German back Xenia Smits is injured for several months because of a shoulder operation.

"We've lost some great players, but that's what all the teams are up to - the two rookies (the Danish back Louise Burgaard and the Ukrainian Olga Perederiy) are making a lot of money, and they have quickly adapted to the spirit of Metz. Handball, at the dose of work.They are the bosses.There is also the return of Mahé (Marie-Hélène Sajka, part one year in Toulon) which has progressed a lot, "said Manon Houette.

- The frame remains blue -

The club can still rely on a cadre of international champions in the world and Europe, around the half-center Grace Zaadi, but some of them (the winger Laura Flippes, the goalkeeper Laura Glauser and the back Orlane Kanor) are dealing with muscle problems and may miss the first match.

All the more reason to be wary of his Croats from Koprivnica, a club whose glory days go back more than twenty years (a title in 1996, a final in 1995), but "which has been much stronger" this summer, underlines Manon Houette.

On the way to the Final Four, there will be two group stages leading to the quarter-finals. As the results of the first round are kept in the second, the Messines will have little right to the error in the next weeks against the Norwegian Kristiansand, who had beaten them for third place last year, and against FTC (Ferencvaros) , the Budapest club.

"We are in one of the most elevated groups," said Manon Houette, who quotes the "usual suspects" as favorites for the Final Four: Györ, Rostov, Bucharest. "But Kristiansand and ourselves were not necessarily expected last year, there may be surprises."

© 2019 AFP