The double European champion from Hérault can make history once again. Thanks to the nine-goal lead won in the first leg (39-30), the Montpellier team, crowned in 2003 and 2018, are in fact ideally placed to relive a new Final Four (June 8 and 9 in Cologne) and dream a third European title, the last for their manager Patrice Canayer.
The foundations were laid last Wednesday when, in its incandescent lair of Bougnol, the MHB crushed Kiel, one of the monuments of German handball. “We went from outsider status to favorite, it’s up to us to justify this status. It’s a challenge for us, because we can’t hide when we have a nine-goal lead,” warned Canayer. “It’s a challenge that gives us responsibilities, in front of an injured, perhaps humiliated opponent. But I don’t want us to be the little illegitimate ones fighting against the big ones,” he added.
Left behind by Paris Saint-Germain and Nantes in the title race, frustrated by its elimination in the Coupe de France, Montpellier can therefore still complete the reign of Canayer, at the head of the team for 30 years, with an exploit, that of to dismiss the four-time European champion, “the biggest European club”.
Remember 2003 and 2005 to qualify
To do this, the MHB will have to resist the rebellion promised by Czech coach Filip Jicha and his players, dumped in the Bundesliga and on the verge of a season without a trophy. “Now we need a little miracle.” I hope we will experience a magical night in Kiel,” he promised shortly after the knockout experienced in Bougnol.
Montpellier has every reason to be wary because the club is experiencing monumental upsets from both sides. In 2003, there was the feat of a Champions League final reversed in the return (31-19) after a reverse first leg (27-19) against Pamplona of Jackson Richardson, the former captain bruises.
At the same time, the MHB also came close in March 2005 to the humiliation of a “comeback” in Flensburg (32-19, 36-22 in the first leg), when it was saved on the gong by an extraordinary goal from Grégory Anquetil . “I don’t know anything about miracles, but there are often reversals of situations in the European Cup. We have had plenty of matches with such reversals. In Flensburg, we scored from a direct free kick. It’s a sign that we must believe in it until the end,” recalled Patrice Canayer.
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