Dislodged by Nantes from first place in the Liqui Moly Starligue for an evening, Montpellier alone retained its leading position after their home victory against Chartres on Friday evening. A 27-24 success which took a long time to take shape, however, for the MHB.
Nantes will not have remained very long in contact with Montpellier. Twenty-four hours exactly. That is the time for the leader of the classification, temporarily dislodged Thursday evening by the Nantes after their success on the floor of Cesson-Rennes (35-26), to respond to the pressure of the “H” by also winning, Friday evening against Chartres (27-24) during the continuation of this 20th day of Liqui Moly Starligue.
A success that allows the Héraultais, who have still lost only two games since the start of the season, to maintain a two-point lead over Nantes and four over PSG, who will host Toulouse on Sunday. However, if the MHB retains the lead in the championship (it had taken control before the international break by taking advantage of PSG’s misstep in Chambéry) and signed its 18th victory of the season this Friday, the first in the classification have not had an easy game nevertheless, in front of their public against the poorly ranked (Chartres occupies the 14th place after this defeat).
The MHB got scared
[#liquimolystarligue – J20]
🔥 Victory! In a close match until money time, the MHB ended up winning with a tango from Diego and a goal from Desbonnet.🗣 “It’s not the big night, but the victory is here”
🔎The summary, the stats, the reactions⬇️
— Montpellier Handball (@mhbofficiel) March 17, 2023
Hanging on to the break (12-12), Montpellier also had to wait for the last five minutes to end up unlocking the padlock of a very solid Chartrain team defensively for 55 minutes. Offensively, the visitors also made a strong impression. On several occasions, Chartres even took the lead in this part and it took a great game in the first half from MHB goalkeeper Charles Bolzinger (7 saves at 37%) – Rémi Desbonnet then took over in the cage – to prevent the leader from suffering a big disappointment. On arrival, more fear than harm for the Montpellier, who made the difference at the end of the match in the wake of their two top scorers of the evening the Spaniard Jaime Fernandez, who arrived at the start of the week in Hérault as a medical joker, and the Argentinian Diego Simonet, both authors of six goals and decisive in this money time which saw Simonet find the fault four times in a row.
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