Handball

LNH DIVISION 1 – Round 14

Salvo

Dec 15, 2023 • 9 min read

CESSON RENNES MÉTROPOLE HB VS CHAMBÉRY SAVOIE HB. 17/12/23 CET 4 P.M

Bis repetita

3 days later, the same match again. A tactically interesting back-to-back. Cesson had just won the French Cup on penalties. A match that ended in a 31-31 draw. What tactical changes will you make to tip the balance in your favor?
We're waiting for Chambéry to react so as to reduce the impact of the Cessonnais full-backs. Indeed, Mathieu Salou has been enjoying himself from long range, with 5 goals to his name. Faced with this profile, Erick Mathé will be able to choose whether to trust his goalkeepers or go for a long, high shot. But given the profile of his No. 3s, it will certainly be the former, or the removal of No. 2 by Queido Traoré.
We therefore expect Chambéry to adapt and reduce the impact of the Cessonnais full-backs. Perhaps we'll see the emergence of Michel Baran, a young player from Cesson's training center. He has impressed with his maturity of late and the contribution he makes offensively.
Chambéri's wide attack, meanwhile, should continue to perform well, leaving room, as it did in the French Cup, for the dueling play of center- halves Sebastian Skube and Lucas Vanegue (3 and 6 goals respectively).
The absence of goalkeeper Arnaud Tabarand should weigh heavily in the balance.
So we're expecting a Chambéri reaction that should score as many goals as in the French Cup, but reduce the Bretons' attacking impact. A tight victory, but with a slight gap at the finish.

C’CHARTRES MÉTROPOLE HANDBALL VS USAM NIMES GARD 15/12/23 CET 8PM

The recipe for recovery

The Nîmois have recently found the ingredients for this revival. But will Chartres find the ingredients? What happened on the Gard side to achieve this great performance against the Toulousans? Strong choices by Yann Balmossière, who transformed his typical team. Tom Poyet left on the bench, replaced by Quentin Dupuy, Boïba Sissoko and Quentin Minel at the head of the line to transform the offensive impact of their attack. This was the mixture cooked up by the coach to achieve a 34-27 victory over third-placed Toulouse.
For his part, Nebojsa Stojinovic transformed his attack by placing left-winger Gaël Tribillon in the half-center position to bring more speed to his game. But the Chartrains' injury absences are causing problems, and jeopardizing their level of performance.
The Nîmes defense took the upper hand with their ability to create depth in front of the players, while always helping each other out. In fact, they destroyed Toulousain's play in this way by making a lot of mistakes. This inhibits the continuity of their opponents' play and allows them to recover from their opponents' forced passes.
Unsurprisingly, USAM came out on top against Chartres by at least 6 goals, with over 30 on the counter. In fact, the Nîmes' isolated attack was very effective and should continue to cause problems for Jund on the pivot or his replacement, who is even more delicate in goal..

US CRÉTEIL HANDBALL VS US IVRY HANDBALL 15/12/23 CET 8:30 PM

Paris Derby

Ivry have just reassured themselves with a win over Saran. They have moved away from the relegation zone and are now level on points with their opponents. But their victory was not the most serene of victories. Above all, it was the XXL performance of their goalkeeper Mate Sunjic, with 14 saves. Perhaps this is the tree that hides the forest. Friday's result will tell.
In a match like this, it's often the goalkeepers who make the difference. And we see the Cristolienne pair making the difference. Indeed, both goalkeepers, Todor Jandric and Dylan Soyez, have been putting in consistently good performances. Créteil's team should be attacking Loredon and exploiting the gaps around his difficult legs. Valentin Aman's sliding returns should also contribute to his team-mates' offensive success. The latter, generally very prolific, should make the difference, with plenty of solutions in all positions.
But the match will be decided by Créteil's ability to inhibit Ivry's attacking play. If they manage to string together a series of fouls and reduce Ivry's speed of play, the match should come down to a big difference in the end. If not, Aymeric Zaepfel's physicality should provide many solutions to the left-back's lack of defensive strength. On the other side of the field, Ronaldo Duquezne has an impact but is easy to read. His intentions can be read by Valentin Aman and Samuel Deen, enabling them to recover balls and project themselves forward. So we're expecting a Cristolienne victory with plenty more goals and a controlled match with a 5-goal margin at the end.

DUNKERQUE HANDBALL GRAND LITTORAL VS LIMOGES HAND 87 16/12/23, CET 8PM

Dunkerque back on track

Dunkerque is back on track after a painful victory over Chartres. What better way to achieve their objectives than by playing an inconsistent team? It won't be easy. Limoges, for their part, have just taken a beating defensively against Saint Raphaël. For once, the goalkeepers were in the firing line. With their string of exploits, it was only to be expected that one day their failure would have an impact on the result. With 39 goals scored, they will need to do better if they are to come away from their trip with a win.
What do you expect? Because Dunkirk's defense isn't the most efficient at the moment. The return of Jean-Loup Faustin has done them good, with his ability to duel and shoot through. But will this be enough against Limoges? It's hard to say, because we're seeing a close game with a lot of aggression and commitment. We can see the attacks struggling in this opposition. The lack of continuity in each of them could be their undoing. So if Dunkerque can tighten up their defense and annihilate the impact of left-back Ihor Turchenko, they can hope to hang on to this match.
However, the technical difference between the two teams should mean that Limoges will have to win on home soil.
Their goalkeepers won't get through two games in a row. The match will therefore end with a narrow margin. It may come as a surprise to see Dunkerque win, but Alberto Entrerios' men's individual attacking technical strength should make all the difference to their victory. Let's hope the Limougeauds' random commitment is the right one this week, so as not to mislead our plans.

HBC NANTES VS PAYS AIX UNIVERSITÉ CLUB HANDBALL 15/12/23, CET 8:30 P.M.

With no loss of momentum

It's clear that these Nantes players are not slowing down. They are currently racking up big wins in the league and in the European Cup. But Créteil, in their defeat, found solutions against the H.
We did find a few weaknesses in the Nantes defense. They are in difficulty in the strongest moments on duels against the n°2s, combined with the sliding of the pivot on the opposite side. The sliding game below could be exploited by Andrèa Parisni on Friday, or by incoming wingers.
But after that, we still have to get through the masterful pair of Nantes goalkeepers, Ivan Pesic with his 10 saves against Créteil or Viktor Hallgrimson, a 203 cm tall Swede. This is making all the difference for Nantais at the moment, leading to their projections into wide open spaces and plenty of goals for Théo Avelange-Demouge and Valero Rivera.
On the defensive side, Aix-en-Provence's difficulty in linking up their tasks gave them a hard time against the MHB last weekend. And the quality of the duels between all the Nantes players should make all the difference. However, the crosses are less relevant. Aix's defense should therefore tighten up and accept solutions on the wings. It's up to Wesley Pardin to make the difference in goal.
We should therefore see an Aix team more at ease defensively than against Montpellier, but which should still lose out to the quality of Nantes' fast-paced play. Their exploitation of Aix's delays should enable them to play a multitude of overhangs in a very short space of time.
Nantes will certainly win again with more than 30 goals against an Aix team that will also exceed 30 goals.

SAINT-RAPHAËL VHB VS PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN HANDBALL 16/12/23, CET 8PM

A flawless mid-season

Even with the rotation, this Parisian team is impressive. Against Cesson, they controlled the match from start to finish, leaving some of their youngsters on the pitch. Léo Villain was on the pitch for 45 minutes, making 11 saves, and Wallem Peleka was among the injured, used to defend the ball upfield, even if he showed some weaknesses in managing the pivot.
In attack, the Parisians will be able to exploit the spaces under the number 2s by sliding the pivot. This will open up either the 2-man relationship with Ruben Marchan or the central space created by this movement, which could be exploited by Elohim Prandi.
We therefore expect Paris to continue to control its attack through all the central isolations created by the various movements dictated by Paris coach Raul Gonzalez.
On the other side of the pitch, Jonathan Mapu and Johannes Marescot could come into their own in this match. Their very low center of gravity should help them to gain the upper hand in their positions against the big Parisians. A lot of goals are therefore expected from them, with the various 3-bottom players having difficulty linking up with the pivots.
But PSG's defensive density and tight-knit defence will make it difficult for the Raphaëllois backline, despite their excellent one-on-one skills. With over 32 goals scored, PSG's victory is still expected to be a controlled one. They are therefore well on the way to a mid-season clean sweep.

SARAN LOIRET HB VS DIJON MÉTROPOLE HB 16/12/23, CET 8PM

An electroshock in sight

Fabien Courtial has been relieved of his duties as Saran coach. Courtial, who had been in the job since 2009 and had seen the club rise from N1 to Division 1, will be replaced by Jérémy Roussel, currently coach of Saran's reserve team. The latter is already familiar with the top level, having coached Aix, Chartres and Massy in the men's league. Let's hope he "stays comfortable in the discomfort" in this penultimate position, two points off survival. The Saranese president therefore wanted to initiate this week to create an electroshock before "the match of death". Saran, second from bottom with 5 points, host Dijon, last with 4 points.
Tactically, Saran's game has picked up since Clément Damiani's time has increased. We saw them play excellently against Ivry and, above all, keep an incredible Ivry goalkeeper Mate Sunjic in check. The game is made up of more movement, with isolations on the 3 bas but also crosses with Accambray. Faced with this very isolated defense, we're expecting Clément Damiani to score a lot, and the bench's contribution with Romulad Kollé to make the difference against Dijon's weaknesses in duels. And if this isn't the case, the difficulty of certain players like Khermouche should open up relations with Saranese pivot Adrien Ramond. So we don't see the Dijon team giving the Orleans suburb any trouble.
On the other hand, Dijon does have the weapons to find solutions to Saran's recurring weaknesses in the right defensive sector. Combined with the relational errors around the pivot shift, Jules Lignières could have some fun with Bastien Khermouche, even if the latter has difficulty holding his position.
The match should still end with Saran's home victory in a tight game. This would put them back on equal points with Créteil and Ivry.

FÉNIX TOULOUSE HANDBALL VS MONTPELLIER HANDBALL 16/12/23, CET 8PM

Will Toulouse continue to plummet?

It's not the easiest game to get back on track. After 3 defeats in a row, Toulouse are back in 4th place, 5 points behind tonight's opponents, Montpellier. Paradoxically, it was Montpellier's most hated rivals who provided the solution. In fact, Nîmes totally succeeded in thwarting the Toulousans' attacking plan.
It's up to Montpellier to achieve this defensive consistency. They'll need to make a lot of mistakes and create depth to cut off the continuity of play from Casper Kall's team-mates. Careful, but this should open up the relationship with Gabriel Nyembo, Toulouse's pivot, where Montpellier's defenders are in most difficulty due to the link-ups in their project.
And the latter are unlikely to change register, given the quality of their performance in recent weeks.
On the other side, the project is rather similar, with a lot of zone-type link-ups around the pivot, but which leave the solution to the inside for a short or longer period of time, depending on the quality of the pivot's position gain in depth.
So we're seeing a lot of relationships with Nacinovic opening up. We saw this against Nîmes, who found the right timing to establish this relationship, which was not the case with Ivry, who forced this relationship without working and linking up beforehand.

We should therefore see Montpellier continue to attack on the initiation of strong time by the duel and in the crossover sequences that they like before finding the relationship with their teammate on the inside.
Even though Montpellier were struggling, the match should end in a victory for their last 30-plus goals against Toulouse's goalkeepers, who are currently struggling.

Sign up for more like this.