Beaten at home by Nantes, Montpellier definitively says goodbye to qualification for the Champions League.

Stas Skube et le MHB ont fini par craquer face aux Nantais dans leur salle. Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON

Après avoir mené une grande partie de la rencontre, le MHB s’est finalement incliné (31-33) face à Nantes et a perdu tout espoir de se qualifier pour la prochaine Ligue des champions.

Montpellier believed in it but ended up giving in. The Montpellier team lost on their home field against Nantes (31-33) after dominating a large part of the match. Despite Lucas Pellas' 11 goals and Rémi Desbonnet's 11 saves, the MHB did not succeed in preventing the return of Nantes.

No Champions League

HBC Nantes which ate up its deficit in the last 10 minutes to finally regain the lead and end up winning. Montpellier absolutely needed a success to hope to qualify for the Champions League, this defeat definitively buries their last hopes.

Reactions

Grégory Cojean (Nantes coach): "A lot of character was needed this evening to win in Montpellier. We knew the season was long and difficult for everyone. At this time of the season you need character. That's what I said to the player at half-time. We haven't talked about tactics, you have to be able to fight until the last minute. That's what we did. There were match circumstances that weren't right for us, but we had a lot of character. We were there looking, we had a lot of mentality. I'm very proud of the players tonight."

Patrice Canayer (Montpellier manager): "It'was a physically involved match, as we&# 39;doubted it, facing two bruised teams who were unable to pass this famous milestone in the European Cup. Obviously, in this kind of situation, you either let yourself be defeated or you fight. Tonight, the two teams chose to fight. It was good. There was the passion that was needed. There were heated moments, but always with respect. Nothing to say about the intensity. I think it's normal to have this type of intensity. It took us 45-50 minutes to get to plus 4. And we lost plus 4 in the space of 3 or 4 minutes. This means that there is still a lot of work to do with this team. But it will be up to Erick (Mathé, his successor, Editor's note) to pull together the matches and move them forward."