Paris (AFP)

Montpellier is the only French club to have won it, when the PSG, him, always runs after.

The two strongholds of French handball return to the Champions League on Wednesday and Thursday, not without satisfaction for the Hérault residents, back after a year of absence.

In 2020-2021, the MHB, double European champion (2003, 2018), took its trouble patiently in the European League (quarter-finalist), the second continental level, while Nantes invited itself to the Final Four of C1 (fourth) for the second time in its history.

This season, it's the other way around.

Nantes will play in C2 and Montpellier reconnects with the European gratin thanks to the second place acquired in D1, behind PSG, champion, and in front of Nantes, third.

Gone are the days when the Starligue could have three representatives in C1, as in 2017-2018, where MHB, Paris and "H" had all slipped into the last four in Cologne.

Nantes then surprised PSG in the half, before losing to Montpellier in the final.

The difficulty today, with only two tickets for the C1, is to keep its place there as the competition pumps energy.

Montpellier welcomes the Hungarian team from Szeged on Wednesday (6:45 p.m.) and will play again on Saturday in Istres in the league.

We will have to be able to keep up with the rhythm of two weekly matches.

- Hold on to the shock -

"Nantes made mistakes in the league by playing the Champions League. And that smiled on us. It is up to us not to reproduce that. The N.1 objective will be the championship", explains the right-back-winger of the MHB and the France Valentin Porte team.

“Statistically, playing the Champions League costs you between four and five points in your championship except for Paris,” adds Languedoc general manager Patrice Canayer, amazed by the ability of Paris SG to play both ways.

French right winger Valentin Porte shoots during the Group A preliminary round handball match between France and Germany of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Yoyogi National Stadium in Tokyo, July 28, 2021. Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS AFP

In 2020-2021, PSG were crowned in D1 for the seventh year in a row, won the Coupe de France and made the trip to Cologne, beaten in the semi-final by the Danes of Aalborg.

"It is not so much the handballistic level that is at stake, it is rather the mental preparation, the ability to string together high-level matches every three days. And the players who are capable of it are not only handball players. They are great competitors ", continues Canayer, the architect of the 42 trophies of the MHB, the most successful club in France.

To keep up with the shock, Montpellier has strengthened.

Five players have left, including center-half Melvyn Richardson (Barcelona), and six more have arrived.

"We tried to have eighteen good professional players," said Canayer.

This did not prevent his team from already losing a point in D1, at home against Saint-Raphaël (29-29) on Sunday.

PSG swept away Istres (34-25).

- Paris at Veszprem entrance -

This summer, the Parisian club did not expand its ranks.

If he lost Spanish defender Viran Morros (Berlin) and left winger Dylan Nahi (Kielce), he only recorded the return on loan from young center-half Sadou Ntanzi (21). .

"I would rather have sixteen quality players rather than twenty-five," said Spain coach Raul Gonzalez.

PSG notably kept five French Olympic champions (Nikola and Luka Karabatic, Gérard, Genty, Remili).

It is with this stable workforce that Gonzalez hopes to finally guide Paris to the C1 before several departures next summer (Hansen, Remili ...).

In June, PSG had failed for the fifth time in the Final Four in six years.

And Barça had offered a tenth record trophy.

Paris Saint-Germain coach of Spain Raul Gonzalez during the Handball Champions League semi-final between Paris Saint-Germain and Aalborg Handbold in Cologne, Germany on June 12, 2021. Ina Fassbender AFP

The Catalan giant is in the same group, with other big names like Kielce, Flensburg and Veszprem where PSG goes Thursday (6:45 p.m.).

A match in the hot Hungarian hall is a way to get straight into the heart of the matter.

© 2021 AFP