Handball: Usam, may the end of the season not be endless…

Quentin Minel et les Nîmois devront s'arracher jusqu'à la fin de saison. MIDI LIBRE – ALEXIS BETHUNE

At the time of receiving Créteil (14th, 7 points), Friday February 16 at 8 p.m. at Parnasse, as part of the 17th day of Starligue, Usam Nîmes (9th, 16 points) is bogged down in soft stomach, seven lengths from the top 4 and Europe. If they don't want to end up coasting, the Gardois must get started for good.

That these five victories after five days and this position of co-leader of Starligue, mid-October 2023, seem far away in the heart of a winter where Usam Nîmes took a big cold snap, in February. ''You lose in Paris (30-22 elimination by PSG in the quarter-final of the Coupe de France, Sunday 4), OK, you know it's going to be difficult. But behind, you go to Cesson, without making the necessary investment, and you take 9 (26-35 in Starligue, Thursday 8), no. You take -17 in two matches…pfffff'', laments Quentin Minel.

There are no more small teams

The 31-year-old left back from Nîmes, at the end of his contract in June and future Chartres player, from next season, gives a lucid assessment of the situation: ' 'We are an average team, even very average, when we don't put in the necessary ingredients. Just as much, three, four years ago, when you went to the teams that were playing for the last three, four places, you could tell yourself that it was going to do it. This is not the case.''

Negotiate Créteil and Aix… before Montpellier

A shortcoming to be rectified against Créteil (14th tied with Saran, 15th and first relegated). Minel alerts: ''If we don't put the base, we're going to get picked up. But I think that, this week, the group really became aware of that and realized that if we don't do what's necessary, we won't be given the points.'&# 39;
At Parnasse, against USC, as in Aix then against… Montpellier in a shock which, unlike the first leg (6th day, 25-23 for MHB), this time will be more of a derby than ;rsquo;a match at the top of the table, Usam has every interest in reacting in order to move forward.

Quentin Minel: ''To win Europe, that’s one thing but to finish with dignity, that’s ;is another one''

''There, you have the top 4 which have broken away and, afterwards, there is a wagon where we are still, summarizes the former Chambérian. But, there, if you lose three matches, you are no longer in it and you could have nothing left to play. So, we're going to have to play hard.''
History, too, that the end does not end in the anonymity of an unfinished season for a group at the end of the cycle (departures of Baznik, Demaille, Dupuy…). And Minel concluded: ''To win Europe (top 4), it’s one thing but to finish with dignity, it’s another. We all want to end on a good note and a good image.''

The Usamist group facing Créteil

Baznik, Demaille (l.). Rebichon, Vincent, Tobie, Dupuy, Minel, Acquevillo, Zuzo, Derisbourg, Gibernon, Mohab, Sanad, Antic, Poyet, Gallego.

Absent: Kamtchop-Baril, Sissoko (ligaments), Konradsson (ankle).

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