HBC Nantes – MHB: Montpellier let its chance slip away against H with too much waste, and it can blame itself for it

Thibaud Briet et les Nantais ont fini par punir les Montpelliérains. MAXPPP – Marc Roger

Guilty of too many errors, the MHB missed the opportunity to score a big blow in Nantes on Sunday, and saw their opponent of the day come back to level with this defeat (29-26), Sunday September 29 during the fourth day of Starligue.  

If there was one match where it was necessary to finally stop this series of nine matches without a win against Nantes in the championship, it was this one. Sick after two defeats in a row, the Violets could have been even more so with a third, Sunday afternoon in their lair of the H Arena no less.

Instead of putting its opponent at the bottom of the Loire, Montpellier failed to break away at several moments of the match and it can blame itself. “This result is frustrating, because I think we can only blame ourselves, Erick Mathé calmly analyzed. A match is long, but I found that it was us who lost, rather than Nantes who regained the upper hand."

Read also: Reactions after HBC Nantes – MHB: "When we have the opportunity to beat them, we can't do it", "We can only blame ourselves"

A good start to the match…

A statistic alone sums up the extent to which the MHB somewhat spoiled things against a HBCN that was probably beatable on Sunday: the 18 balls lost by the Héraultais. “It seems complicated to win in Nantes with so many turnovers”, the Montpellier coach continued to rage.

Especially since his players had started this clash on the right foot, in the wake of a breathtaking Charles Bolzinger and Arthur Lenne (see elsewhere), already leading by four goals after eleven minutes of play (3-7).

But the first errors began to appear in the Montpellier game, especially during the first rotations. We thought then that the MHB would perhaps regret it at the end. Rightly so since Nantes had already gone back in front in the 21st minute (10-9), notably thanks to this poison from Julien Bos, managing to find solutions in the gaps and destabilize a defense that had been impeccable until then.

…That Nantes seemed not to want to win

Worse, the Montpellier players began to waste even more energy yelling at the referees, gradually losing the thread of the match. However, Nantes seemed not to want to win this match when, instead of increasing the gap to four goals, the Violets were temporarily reduced to six for a stupid bad substitution while a +4 ball was within their grasp.

Starligue: the ranking and all the results of the fourth day

All of this allowed the MHB to come back to within a goal ten minutes from the end (24-23, 49th) without anyone really knowing how it was possible. But then, the Héraultais fell back into their old ways once again: a forced pass here, a ball thrown into touch there or a shot well over the top.

“A lost opportunity”

There was indeed this burst of pride from Rémi Desbonnet in goal, after having spent the match on the bench. But the damage was already done. “Yes, it's a lost opportunity to put Nantes on four points and be undefeated in this championship, Mathé admitted. Now, I think there are others who will lose in Nantes, it's only the fourth day.”

“For the moment, it's been a long, quiet river, he continued. There was a small rock in the middle of the river but we will continue this crossing. There is no reason why it should not go well. But 18 losses of bullets, it is still difficult to explain."

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