Chambray burned his wings against Toulon

Chambray : 30
Toulon : 32

The upset history of Chambray Touraine Handball with the Coupe de France continues. This time, it was not a question of an unfavorable draw (Metz, Metz, Metz…), but of an elimination by Toulon, a team not really in good shape, on Saturday evening, at the round of 16 stage.

To explain this poor performance, it must already be emphasized that the Chambraisiennes were not at full strength. Far from it, with only eleven players on the match sheet, compared to sixteen on the Var side. Injured or sick, Melvine Deba, Vilma Matthijs Holmberg and goalkeeper Melinda Szikora joined the still absent Laurie Puleri in the infirmary.

Lack of juice at the end

“And as the N2 team was playing an important match at the same time (against his runner-up in the ranking)we couldn’t strip her,” will specify Mathieu Lanfranchi, the CTHB coach. The objective of bringing the reserve team back to N1 therefore took precedence over the Cup.

However, if the players do not wish to blame the defeat on the lack of rotations, it is difficult not to make the connection, with a match which changed in the last ten minutes: 26-26 in the 51st^eat 30-32, final score. As if the Chambraisiennes were running out of juice, against the Toulonnaises who were also unleashed by the desire to achieve a prestigious success at the heart of their very bleak season.

Too permissive a defense

The other point to highlight concerns the open-door operation on the wings… Twenty goals were thus scored by the Toulon wingers, including nine by Manon Pellerin alone on the right. This is how the Var club quickly took the lead (5-9, 14^e), before being caught up by the cumulative experience of Jovana Stoiljkovic and Laura Van der Heijden, while the young Chambraisienne Dawiya Abdou stood out (5/5 before the break), also on her side (16-15 , 30^e).

And it was on the wings that the Toulonnaises did not hesitate to insist, helped by a good job of fixing in the center and a local defense that was too permissive, from the restart, in order to continue to shake up the CTHB (22-23, 43^e). Chambray then held on thanks to the work of his back base, Lucie Modenel in the lead, and the good placements of his pivot Aminata Sow.

Lanfranchi’s mistake, Samzun’s stops

Obviously, it was also three consecutive goals from a winger, Adriana Cardoso de Castro, which put Toulon definitively in the lead (26-28, 52^e). Just before this series, the CTHB could have gone in front, after a good sequence. But this was cut short by Mathieu Lanfranchi’s yellow card for contesting. “I then found that the players were not protected enough, but it was a management error that I made, because at that moment we lost an important ball,” he will regret.

Finally, it was the Chambraisian wingers who made a mistake on the wire. While a save from Emma Perche had just offered an equalizer thirty seconds from the end (30-31), Constance Mauny, then Abdou, in turn saw their attempt stopped by the opposing goalkeeper, Zazie Samzun. Pellerin was then able to score a final goal (30-32) and a ticket for the quarter-finals. For Chambray, only the championship remains after this disappointment.

Half time: 16-15.
Referees: MM. M. et J. Chiffoleau.
CTHB : Perch (15 stops/47 shots); Mauny (0 goals/2 shots), Abdou (5/8), Modenel (8/9), Van der Heijden (4/6), Morvan (2/2), Sow (4/5), Arotcarena-Rosas, Sylla, Stoiljkovic (6/10), Grimaud (1/2).
Toulon : Samzun (11 stops/41 shots), Zimmerman ; Bergum (4 buts/9 tirs), Lachaize, Grollier (2/3), Pellerin (9/12), Thévenet, Berrais (3/4), Demunck (1/2), Cardoso (4/5), Raulo (1/1), Loquay (0/2), Sousa (2/2), Folituu (2/4), Rival (4/5), Sidicina.
Exclusions : at the CTHB, Mauny (21’22), Modenel (35’53); in Toulon, Thévenet (22’11), Demunck (53’28).

Hot

Mathieu Lanfranchi (CTHB coach): “We were too lax in defense. To concede thirty-two goals is beyond our standards… Toulon also had some success, we lacked some. We can talk about the lack of rotations, but for me, it was above all the defensive solidity that was not there in this match. The positive point is that we come out without any injuries. We were also able to give playing time to some, like Jone Arotcarena-Rosas. »

Manon Pellerin (Toulon winger): “We’re really happy, because it’s a match that we went for based on character! We really needed it for morale, because we were coming off a difficult match in the league against Nice. We reacted quickly, we can be proud, especially against a team like Chambray, which even though weakened is still very solid. Mentally, we didn’t give up, because we had a rage within us which made the difference in the end. »