The Canayer era in Montpellier deprived of a happy ending: an incredible comeback from Kiel (31-21) in the quarter-final second leg of the Champions League on Thursday ejected the Héraultais from the queen of competitions in the north of Germany.
Nine goals: Montpellier squandered its immense lead from the first leg (39-30), sunk on the shores of the Baltic. The demonstration in Hérault had nevertheless opened the way to the Final Four for the end of the thirty years of the Patrice Canayer era, its emblematic coach.
The German quadruple European champions had never overturned more than five goals in their rich European history.
It’s hard to imagine this epilogue: a last-chance shot from MHB’s Brazilian fullback Bryan Monte to try to equalize and snatch a penalty shootout. Except that the latter, like many others, found the goalkeeper of the German club Tomas Mrkva (12 saves, 41%), more prominent than the other goalkeeper, the Frenchman Samir Bellahcene.
The Héraultais, double winners of this competition (2003 and 2018), had the worst difficulties in scoring – only one goal in the last quarter of an hour – against “Zèbras” not resigned to the fate of prey.
At half-time, the script was not ideal (17-12) against the German “Rekordmeister” – 23 titles in the Bundesliga – and the 10,000 spectators at the Ostseehalle began to believe it.
But these last fifteen minutes, which were too feverish, were fatal to Valentin Porte’s gang (4 goals on 6 shots). Winger Lucas Pellas, who missed two penalties, precipitated the stunning scenario with his temporary exclusion for protesting (25-20, 47th).
As a turning point, during this numerical inferiority Bryan Monte lost one of his duels (1 goal in 6 shots) against Mrkva allowing pivot Hendrik Pekeler to score in the empty goal (27-20, 49th).
In the process, the Brazilian polishing diamond (21 years old) saw one of his passes intercepted and converted (29-21, 52nd) and winger Yanis Lenne (4/6) left his teammates inferior for a shot in the face of Mrkva (56th). The long-term absences this season of Ahmed Hesham and Kyllian Villeminot on the back base ended up paying off.
Having difficulty scoring in a placed attack, the MHB may regret the missed penalties (3 in total) which facilitated the “Aufholjagd”. A return to the language of the birthplace of handball.