Nantes forced to draw, Nîmes and Toulouse winners
Aurélie SACCHELLI, Media365, published on Tuesday 07 December 2021 at 11:26 pm
The four French clubs involved in the European League had a very different evening: Nimes and Toulouse defeated Tatabanya and Presov respectively, while Nantes drew against Benfica while Aix lost in La Rioja.
There are only four days left in the group stage of the European League and we are starting to see a little more clearly. At the end of the sixth day, Nîmes is the French club best placed to reach the round of 16, since the Gard club occupy the first place (the first four are qualified), after their 30-38 victory over the Hungarians of Tatabanya, red lantern of group D. USAM had a very good start to the match and scored up to four goals in the 19th (9-13), but the Hungarians signed a 5-0 at the end of the period to go ahead for the first times of the match (16-15, 27th) and finally join the locker room leading 17-16. Tatabanya held until 19-19 (34th), before cashing twice 3-0 (20-25, 40th). Nîmes always had at least four goals in advance until the end, and won easily, in the wake of a huge Mohamed Hisham Sanad, author of 15 goals!
Nantes may have regrets
The other French victory of the day is to be put to the credit of Toulouse, which went to win 19-31 against the Slovaks of Presov and occupies the third place in group A, two wins behind the leader Berlin. Like the Nîmes, the Toulouse started the match very well and led 1-4 (4th), but the Slovaks managed to get past (7-6, 11th) and score two goals in advance in the 18th (10-8). However, the Fenix followed it up with a 5-0 and finally reached halftime with a score of 12-16. In the second half, Presov came down to -2 (16-18, 36th) and then conceded a crippling 6-0 (16-24, 45th), and Toulouse progressed until the end of the match. Nemanja Ilic finished Toulouse’s top scorer with 7 goals.
Aix always fanny
Nantes, for its part, was forced to a draw at home by Benfica (33-33) and is third in Group B, a victory for the leader. The H started the match perfectly, leading 6-1 (8th), but little by little, the Portuguese managed to close the gap (10-7, 16th) and even equalize six minutes from half-time ( 14-14). At the break, Nantes was behind 16-17. In the second period, the H managed to lead by four goals (27-23, 46th), but again, Benfica came back, and equalized three minutes from the end (31-31). The two teams are not let go (33-33) and neither but were scored in the last 70 seconds, although Valero Rivera was in great shape, with 11 goals scoreds. The only French defeat in the evening came from Spain, where Aix was largely beaten (33-26) by La Rioja, so that the Provenç remain fanny in Group C and therefore the red lantern, even if the qualification remains possible since the fourth has only two wins. The PAUC was led throughout this game: 6-2 in the 10th, 13-8 in the 20th, 17-13 at half-time, 22-18 in the 40th, 27-22 at the 50th, and it is ultimately a defeat of seven goals, despite the 8 goals of Ian Tarrafeta Serrano.