Paris (AFP)

The handball players of Brest, on a shot from Ana Gros in the last seconds, went to snatch the point of the draw (27-27) in the room of the triple reigning European champions, the Hungarians of Györ, Saturday in the League champions.

With this draw, the Brestoises now have 16 points, firmly established in second place in the group, two points behind Györ (18 pts, but eleven matches played, one less than Brest), undefeated in the Champions League since January 2018 ( 48th game in a row unbeaten).

The BBH's one-point lead over CSKA Moscow (15 pts) should however be put into perspective because the Russians have so far only played nine C1 matches, three less than the Bretons.

On the other hand, Laurent Bezeau's players distance themselves from the Danes of Odense, 4th with three points less than Brest and only two matches to play before the end of the group stage.

The first two teams qualify directly for the quarter-finals, while the teams classified from 3rd to 6th place must go through a jump-off.

This season, Brest has twice shared the points against Györ, considered the best women's handball club on the planet with center-half Stine Oftedal, pivot Béatrice Edwige, left-back Estelle Nze-Minko and even the goalkeeper Amandine Leynaud.

At home, in the heart of autumn, the Bretons had yielded a draw after leading by four goals with five minutes remaining.

On Saturday, they hung on while during the second half the Hungarian steamroller seemed to set in motion (23-20, 44th), under the impetus of the Norwegian Veronica Kristiansen (7 goals, including 4 penalties) and the Brazilian Eduarda Amorim (7 goals).

But the many saves (8 out of 20 shots) of Cléopatre Darleux, who entered the second half in the Brest goals instead of the Danish Sandra Toft, allowed the Bretons to stay in contact.

Coralie Lassource's teammates missed several opportunities to equalize at the start of the last quarter of an hour, but they still managed to get back to score on a goal from their captain (23-23, 50th) and won the draw on a goal from Ana Gros, best scorer in Brest with Lassource (5 goals each), in the last two seconds (27-27).

Brest will host Dortmund in two weeks before concluding this group stage in Romania, against Valcea.

© 2021 AFP