Paris (AFP)
Montpellier paid dearly for his indiscipline against the Kiel Germans in the Champions League, dropping 33 to 32 after leading four goals early in the second period on Saturday during the 10th day of the group stage.
The 2018 European champions have 11 points four days from the end of the group stage and are in a good position to take one of the tickets for the round of 16 (seven points ahead of the seventh in the pool) , stage of the competition they had not reached last season.
However, the teammates of Valentin Porte will be able to feed regrets on their trip to Kiel, as they impressed, including a high-performance right side, whether on the back base (Melvyn Richardson, Valentin Porte) or on the wing (Julien Bos, Yannis Lenne), with 21 of 32 Herault goals from these four players.
The men of Patrice Canayer have unfortunately squandered a four-goal advantage early in the second half (22-18, 36th), with many temporary exclusions of two minutes (eight exclusions against two in total), allowing the Germans to return gradually in touch with.
The Lithuanian Jonas Truchanovicius (100% to 3/3 shot) had to leave the room well before the end of the meeting, scooping his third exclusion more than eight minutes from the term.
Montpellier had a 30-second possession of the end of the match to equalize and bring back a valuable point from Germany, but Portuguese left-back Gilberto Duarte failed on his attempt, stopped by the Danish Niklas Landin.
After the international break in January, the Montpellier will have four meetings (receptions of the Poles of Kielce and Belarussians of Brest, travel to the Hungarians of Veszprem and the Macedonians of Skopje) in February to validate the ticket for the 8th.
For his part, Kiel is on course to hang the first place in the pool, synonymous with direct qualification for the quarterfinals.
© 2019 AFP