After beating Saran at the start of the championship (28-26), the Caen Handball Vikings went to win at the second relegated from Starligue, Nancy, this Thursday in the advanced match of the 3rd day of Proligue (31-35).
The Caen Handballeurs attacked the game with their feet on the floor and reached half-time with a seven-goal advantage (13-20).
“We had a great first half. welcomes their coach Roch Bedos. We scored on almost every attack and we recovered balls defensively to feed ourselves. We knew that this match could be key if we put in difficulty this team which was a little doubtful.
The Vikings were especially successful in countering the return of Nancy in the second half. The Lorrainers even managed to come back tied (30-30) ten minutes from time before being left behind by the Normans again, this time definitively.
A defeat would have been hard to swallow compared to the first half we could have produced
“We got into trouble at that time, explains the Caen coach. We had a huge slump. Our goalkeeper Alan made four saves for us in the last very important minutes. We managed to make a few goal balls grow and take the points. A defeat would have been hard to swallow compared to the first half we had been able to produce.”
Caen finished with 74% shooting success. Center half Francisco Pereira finished as the Vikings’ top scorer (9 goals on 11 shots) and goalkeeper Alan Santos de Lima finished the game nearing 40% saves (13 saves for 33 shots).
This 3rd victory in as many matches for the Handballeurs Caennais temporarily places them at the top of their division pending the results of Pontault-Combault, Dijon, Massy and Bordeaux who will only play this Friday and Saturday.