Rock Feliho and the people of Nantes must achieve a small feat this Wednesday evening in Poland.

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Grega Valancic / Sportida / SIPA

  • This Wednesday evening, HBC Nantes, beaten by a goal (24-25) in the first leg, will be in Kielce in Poland for the round of 16 second leg of the Champions League.

  • PSG, victorious (37-24) in Slovenia against Celje in the first leg, should quietly validate their qualification for the quarter-finals Thursday night in Coubertin.

For this round of 16 second leg of the Champions League, the leeway between HBCN and PSG, the two French clubs in the race in this competition, is not really the same.

Beaten at home (25-24) in the first leg, the Nantes handball players go to Poland in search of a feat against Kielce on Wednesday (8:45 p.m.) in the round of 16 second leg of the Champions League, while the Parisians will have to validate their ticket for the quarters.

The task that awaits the players of Alberto Entrerrios promises to be complicated, but not totally impossible if we look at the performance of Nantes this season in the Champions League away: they went to win in the room of the Germans. de Kiel (35-27) and hung on FC Barcelona (defeat 30-29) in the group stage.

One goal late for the HBCN

The first leg against Kielce, author of a very solid first part of the European campaign including a victory against Paris SG, leaves some hope for the teammates of Captain Rock Feliho.

At the H Arena, the first thirty minutes were dominated by the Nantes, before their attack came up against, on the return from the locker room, the change of defense of the Poles.

But the "H" did not completely sink in the heart of the second half when Kielce started to take off (three goals ahead of less than a quarter of an hour from the end).

By returning to the score, the Nantes have managed to keep all their chances to pass the obstacle Kielce and find the quarter-finals, as in 2018 and 2019.

For the Parisians, on the other hand, the second leg of the round of 16 looks much more like a simple formality.

Luka Karabatic's teammates did not go into detail in Slovenia against Celje, winning by 13 goals in the first leg (37-24).

Faced with a Slovenian team weakened by the absence of several injured key players, Raul Gonzalez's players will have to confirm Thursday evening (8:45 p.m.) in Coubertin their good form at the moment, before a probable quarter-final against defending champion Kiel , who won the first round of his round of 16 in Hungary at Szeged (33-28) and is on a favorable waiver before returning to northern Germany.

Paris wants to avoid injuries

"Imposing [his] rhythm", as Nedim Remili underlined after the victory in the league against Chambéry, will be one of the keys for PSG to calmly pass this stage of the competition, without physical glitches, while the Parisians will continue then in the league important matches for the national title.

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HBC Nantes-Kielce: Beaten by a goal, the Nantes people will have to achieve the feat on their return to Poland

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