Montpellier Handball easily won in Dunkirk (28-37), Friday March 24, during the 21st day of Starligue of which it remains the only leader.
Thanks to this fifth consecutive victory in the league, Montpellier Handball effectively keeps two points ahead of its runner-up, Paris SG – easy winner against Istres (42-30) on Friday – and provisionally four over HBC Nantes – which hosts Toulouse on Sunday .
The MHB concluded a week of travel in a very nice way, after winning their round of 16 first leg in Budapest against Ferencvaros (30-36), before the return match on Tuesday and a championship day against Ivry, next Friday at home.
All this before a month of April which promises to be daunting with a semi-final of the Coupe de France against Paris SG at the Sud de France Arena, then two trips, to Nantes and again against PSG, in Starligue this time.
Two completely different halves in Dunkirk
Friday evening in Dunkirk, the Montpellier residents were still jostled by Dunkirk in the first half, which even led by two goals in the tenth minute (8-6). But without panicking, Patrice Canayer’s players regained the upper hand just before halftime to lead by one goal (17-18).
Better, they immediately went into overdrive from the start of the second period to inflict a 5-0 on the Northerners (17-23, 36th) who will not recover. Note the very good score of Julien Bos (7 goals on 7 shots), co-top scorer of the MHB on Friday evening with Kyllian Villeminot (7/12).
Valentin Porte: “A bit the same match as Tuesday”
Valentin Porte, captain of Montpellier Handball (at the microphone of beIN SPORTS): “They wanted to put some rhythm in this match to surprise us but it didn’t work because we are used to this little game, and I suspected that they were going to end up cracking thanks to our more important rotations.
Finally it was a bit the same match as Tuesday where it was better in the second than in the first half. In the first half, we had fewer saves than them, loss of balls, we played less well than them and at the exit we were still in front of a goal, which must have hurt them behind the head.
And in the second, it took us five, six minutes to make the difference and it’s very good to have been able to manage this lead in second when it’s never easy to win at Dunkirk.”