Hand: Montpellier crushes Kiel and continues to dream of the Champions League

Heroic and daring, Montpellier can dream of a second qualification for the Final Four after the successful feat (39-30) Wednesday at home in the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League in front of Kiel, one of the German handball giants.

Without complex and full of mastery, the double European champion pulled off an offensive demonstration to outflank the heavy German defense on all sides and create a comfortable gap, before the second act next Thursday. For his last European match at Bougnol, manager Patrice Canayer, who will leave office in June, experienced a meeting worthy of his immense imprint and an unrivaled record. Everything is more possible than ever. Next Thursday at the Sparkassen-Arena, and its 10,000 supporters, the MHB will have to put on an equally accomplished match to make the journey to Cologne, six years after its second European coronation, and reach the semi-finals for the fourth time in its history. -finals.

Left behind in third place in the championship, behind Paris-SG and Nantes, the double European champion can therefore aim for the third star in its history (2003, 2018).

On Wednesday, in its historic “Bougnol” venue, crowded to the hilt, Montpellier jostled the German champion, who had twice dominated PSG to finish at the top of their group. He tortured him like never before two years after a victory (37-30) in the group stage at the Sud de France Arena.

Montpellier quickly took control to impose a frenzied pace on the strong German templates and display a nice offensive variety under the baton of its Slovenian playmaker Stas Skube, fine strategist and scorer (7). Buoyed by the efficiency of international winger Yanis Lenne and Swedish international Lucas Pellas, both authors of eight goals, the MHB widened a first gap of five goals (13-8, 15th) . In the long-distance duel between the goalkeepers of the French team, three months before the next Olympic Games in Paris, Montpellier Rémi Desbonnet put on a real show (35% saves), despite the know-how of his Bilyk backs and Johansson. He even had the luxury of scoring two goals.

Despite the early exclusion of fullback Marko Panic (15th) for a dangerous gesture, Montpellier never slowed down or deviated from its strategy. He found other options on his rotations, such as that of Brazilian fullback Bryan Monte, to almost double his gap during the second half and maintain it until the end to dream of an exploit.