Liberated, delivered, the Besançon handball players, hitherto weighed down by their defensive mistakes since the beginning of 2022! The players of Sébastien Mizoule – more adept, him, of phrasing à la Michel Audiard – have “scattered like a puzzle” the penultimate of the French championship this Wednesday evening. A very large victory (37-23) at home, in front of Those-on-Belle, promoted this season to D1/Butagaz Energie League and who thus remains stuck at the bottom of the standings (2 wins, 10 losses) at the end of this 12th and penultimate day of the First leg.
On his side, the ESBF returns to the Top 5 qualifier for Europe by reconnecting, finally, with success (7 wins, 5 losses) after a painful previous week…
Effectively regained defensive aggressiveness
The thesis of the mishap – “which can happen to everyone in a season”, according to players and coach of the ESBF – was therefore a priori the right one, to explain this horrible collective shipwreck sanctioned by a logical defeat at home against the red lantern of the French championship, a week earlier … This Wednesday evening , with the reception of Celles-sur-Belle, normally within their reach, the Bisontines knew more than anyone the importance of finding their recipe for winning.
So as not to further undermine their trust and accounting capital as well, because Captain Pauline Robert and her friends also remained on two other sharp defeats during the last ten days: in the European Cup, certainly with Hungarians and against Norwegians at a much higher level than that of the last of the French class… but still, two very heavy defeats with nearly 40 goals conceded each time by the ESBF, unusually too tender, especially defensively…
And this is precisely what has tipped the scales in the right direction, as hoped and clearly demanded by coach Mizoule: this aggressiveness, this aggressiveness of each in defense to collectively solidify protecting the purpose of Roxanne Frank (17 saves, at 48%!) and Florence Bonnet (4 stops; return planned next week for Sakura Hauge, who finished treating her injured ankle in December)! Less complicated and even simpler then, inevitably, to recover the opposing balls and leave to score on quick attacks in particular (3-1, 8 ‘/ 14-4, 19′ / 17-10, half time / 24-13, 39′ / 31-18, 51′).
Especially since the ESBF has also regained his marksmanship : 69%, against 59, 44 and 57% during the last three defeats… And the icing on the cake, all the Bisontines – even the young left winger Lea Pobelle, 20 years old – shook the nets at least once each! The best scorers of the evening are called Lucie Granier (6/6, in 35 ‘on the ground), Alizée Frécon-Demouge (4/4) or even (6/9 both) Sabrina Zazaï and Aleksandra Rosiak, the Polish left-back still being well involved in Besançon – there was no doubt about it – the day after the announcement of his signing with the Slovenians of Krim Ljubljana for next season.
Quickly confirm in the European Cup, against the Croats this Saturday
This salutary reaction must obviously be confirmed and validated on the continental scene now. This Saturday (January 22, 8 p.m.), it’s Lokomotiva Zagreb, the current invincible leader of the Croatian championship, who arrives at the Palais des Sports in Besançon. Already on behalf of the 3rd and last day of matches Go to the Group stage of the European League: a match not far from decisive to continue aiming for one of the two qualifying places – from the group of four teams – for the 1/4 finals…