Three years after having played in a Final 4 of the Champions League and having gone to the final, will the Nantes team repeat the feat?

HBC Nantes has, in any case, taken an important step on Thursday evening by winning 32-28 at home against the Hungarian club Veszprem, juggernaut of European handball, in the quarter-final first leg.

Next Thursday, during the second leg in Hungary on the shores of Lake Balaton, they can even afford to lose three goals, or four if they score at least 29. "We haven't done anything yet", a timed coach Alberto Entrerrios.

“We're at half-time.

Rather than the result, we must congratulate ourselves on what we have done on the ground.

The guys were hungry.

We put in all the ingredients ”.

The minister appreciated

Its players have, in any case, achieved a first goal, by winning by four goals in their H Arena empty of spectators (but in the presence of the Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu), thanks to a quarter of an hour madness between the 15th and 30th minutes of play, inflicting a 10-3 to the Hungarians, present in the last four of the Champions League six times in the last seven seasons.

With a clever mix between the youth of the French Aymeric Minne (two goals) as a center-half and Théo Monar (two goals) as a pivot, and the experience of the indestructible Macedonian Kiril Lazarov (just 41 years since three days and four goals Thursday), the Nantes disgusted Veszprem, who collided with the wall Emil Nielsen in the Nantes goals, author of six saves during these fifteen minutes (15 in total).

The return match with the public

And it was not the half-time break that cut the wings of the 2021 world champion with Denmark, who closed the shooting angles perfectly to the Veszprem players.

The gap rose to seven goals (24-17, 42nd), then stabilized.

The numerical inferiorities (ten minutes) were perfectly managed, and the entry of Baptiste Damatrin on the left wing confirmed the excellent health of young shoots from Nantes.

Only small regret, the double temporary exclusion at the end of the game which allowed Veszprem to pick up on four goals and maintain the Hungarian hope.

In a week, the public will be present, a first in months for Nantes and Hungarians alike.

Not enough to impress Thibaud Briet, the young Nantes left-back: “It's going to be good to find the public.

In addition, that of Veszprem is just magnificent ”.

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