Paris (AFP)

By winning 25 to 22 against the Romanians in Bucharest late Saturday afternoon, the Messines secured second place in their Champions League group, and find themselves in the same quarter of the table as Brest.

With the remodeling of the C1 formula decided on Wednesday by the European Federation (EHF), the Messines will have to play a round of 16 in early and mid-March.

However, they still have to wait a bit to know the identity of the opponent: it will be either the Romanians of Valcea, whose match scheduled for Sunday against Brest has been canceled, or more likely against the Germans of Borussia Dortmund, who host the Danes. Odense Sunday.

On Saturday, the Messines managed to control the Bucharest team, led by their Romanian left-back Cristina Neagu (8 goals on 17 shots).

Neagu was, however, struggling on the 7-meter jets (2/4) and long-distance shots (2/5).

Marie-Hélène Sajka, from her position on Metz's right-back base, once again did wonders with her left hand, with a nice 6/8 shooting, best scorer in the side of the straps.

And in goals, Hatadou Sako erected the wall (13 saves on 34 shots), while Dinah Eckerle was intractable on the 7-meter jets (2 saves on 3 shots).

The players of Emmanuel Mayonnade thus end with a victory their endless chain of 12 games in the space of seven weeks since the beginning of January.

They finished 2nd in their group with 20 points (ten wins and four losses), one point less than the Russians of Rostov (21), who won against the Hungarians of Ferencvaros (26-24) on Saturday.

The Messines thus find themselves in the same quarter of the table as Brest.

The Bretons, who were unable to travel to Romania to play against Valcea, are guaranteed to finish third in their group, and will face the Danes of Esbjerg in the round of 16, with the advantage of receiving the match. back in mid-March.

The winners of these two round of 16 will find themselves in the quarterfinals, with a place for Final 4 at the end of May in Budapest on the line.

For the poster for the last day of the group stage, the reigning triple European champions (2017, 2018, 2019) from Györ with their French colony (Béatrice Edwige, Laura Glauser, Amandine Leynaud, Estelle Nzé-Minko) beat CSKA Moscow.

The Hungarians went on a 51st game without defeat in C1.

© 2021 AFP