Starligue: Fenix Toulouse – Nîmes, derby boiling in the race for Europe
After two damaging defeats, the Fenix must absolutely win at home in a match between Occitans which promises to be hot (8 p.m.).
Long in the hunted position, the Fenix will now have to turn into a hunter since their defeat at Saint-Raphaël (30-33) on the last day of the championship. Stripped of their fifth place in favor of Chambéry, where they had also lost (29-31) a fortnight earlier, the Toulouse are now one point behind the Savoyards five days from the end.
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Handball: Fenix Toulouse emerges with their heads held high from the Coupe de France, narrowly beaten by PSG in the semi-finals
And if it is rumored in the corridors of the European Handball Federation (EHF) that sixth place could also offer a European ticket – due to the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian clubs from the various continental competitions – the safest thing is when even to finish fifth.
A goal also seen by Nîmes (6th), which is just two points behind Fenix before this long-awaited derby. Having become a real team again since the departure of its coach Franck Maurice, and the succession of its former assistant Yann Balmossière six weeks ago, the Gard team has won its five games since this electroshock.
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Starligue: in Saint-Raphaël, the Fenix Toulouse took the lightning!
Nîmes has not lost in Toulouse for five years…
Five is also the number of consecutive trips without defeat for a Nîmes team which sends itself at home to the Palais des sports. This evening, it will be copiously garnished for this party between neighbors and it is rumored that the Toulouse, who are undefeated at home in the league since October (6 wins and 3 draws), really want to break this black series.
It will have to be done without the young left winger Teo Jarry and especially without Matthieu Marmier, slightly injured in the knee during the semi-final of the Coupe de France lost in Paris (32-39) last Saturday.
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Pettersson (Fenix Toulouse): “This fifth place, we want it!”
Too bad, the ardor and taste for combat of the Montalban right-back would have been perfectly in tune with this derby which promises to be as tough as it is furious. And decisive, above all…
