Paris (AFP)
The Nantes handball players outclassed Cesson-Rennes 41 to 21 on Saturday early evening in their closed-door Arena on behalf of the 10th day of the French Championship.
After seven games played, the "H" has 11 points (five wins, one draw and one defeat), one less than Montpellier, and shares 4th place with Nîmes, also 11 points after his victory against Tremblay (30-27 ) Saturday, but the Gardois played two more matches than Nantes and Montpellier.
Paris SG, which travels to Créteil on Sunday (3:20 p.m.), still leads the standings with 16 points, the maximum possible in eight matches played (eight wins).
And for his part, the promoted Limoges (2nd) continues to surprise (13 points in 10 matches).
On Saturday at the H Arena, the players of Alberto Entrerrios, affected a few weeks ago by many positive cases of Covid-19, went it alone.
They quickly escaped the score, carried by Slovenian center-half Rok Ovnicek (six 100% goals) and Spanish left-winger Valero Rivera (10 goals, including six penalties).
They only experienced a small alert at the end of the first period, with Cesson-Rennes coming back to two goals (14-12, 30th), but the return from the locker room was one-sided, with only nine goals scored for the Bretons.
"In the last ten minutes we started to miss some easy shots and Cesson is a team that never gives up," commented Nantes captain Rock Feliho at the microphone of beIN Sports, satisfied with the sequence after the victory in midweek in the Champions League in Celje (Slovenia).
They will be able to breathe during next week, because their Champions League match in Zagreb has been postponed due to cases of Covid-19 in the Croatian workforce.
In the other match scheduled for Saturday afternoon in the Starligue, Nîmes won against Tremblay (30-27), not without a little fear at the end of the match (27-26, 56th).
© 2020 AFP