LMS | Paris champion, Nancy still alive
While Paris won its eighth league title in a row at the bottom of the rankings, Nancy revived the suspense for maintenance by beating Créteil.
It’s been a long time since there was more suspense for the title of champion of France, if there ever was one. It is now done, the Paris Saint Germain validated his eighth consecutive national crown, winning against Montpellier tonight (37:33). If they were brought up quickly by five goals, the capital’s players turned the situation around, going to the break with a score of equality (18:18) before widening the gap as soon as the locker room returned. Yann Genty was decisive, with 11 saves at 39% success, while Luc Steins scored eight goals in Paris’ twenty-fifth victory in as many matches. Montpellier, which is now five points from the podium, also lost Yanis Lenne, hit in the hand at the end of a counter-attack, and whose season could be over.
After three straight defeats in all competitions, Nantes left the front on the side of Limoges (31:23) whileAix has mastered his subject in the face of Chartres (32:28). PAUC is still one point behind Nantes in the race for second place, qualifying for the Champions League. Still so much diminished by wounds, Saint-Raphael has for its part chained at home against Toulouse (33:30), including eight goals from Vadim Gayduchenko.
But it is especially at the bottom of the ranking that things have changed. Beating Creteil (36:31), Nancy took two points on Istres and Saran, who clash this Saturday evening. Taking advantage of Cristolian defensive apathy, Benjamin Braux’s players made the hole in the first act, going into the break with a seven-point lead (22:15). And when Créteil woke up, sticking back to three lengths, it was Obrad Ivezic who intervened, keeping his people in the match before Nancy took off again in the last ten minutes. The people of Nancy, if they are still in the red lantern, can still believe in the maintenance, especially since they will travel to Saran during the next day.
Kevin Domas