“This meeting has everything of a trap match”. This is what Alberto Entrerrios, coach of Limoges Handball, announced before the start of this 10th day of Liqui Moly Starligue. Lacking confidence, the LH hosted Créteil, penultimate in the championship, this Friday, November 15, 2024. And from the start of the match, Beaublanc knew that Limoges was going to have a complicated evening.
Todor Jandric disgusted the LH
From the first 3 minutes, this Créteil team takes a 2-goal lead, after 2 well-executed offensive actions. Despite an imperial Dino Slavic in his cages (10 saves, 29%), Limoges Handball were never able to keep up the pace. The repeated assaults of this Créteil team, led by a Belco Ayeva on cloud nine (5 goals, 8 assists, 3 balls recovered), will have completely overwhelmed the Limougeaude defense, never at the level during this meeting.
But the man of the match, on the Créteil side, undoubtedly remains the Croatian goalkeeper Todor Jandric. Between reflex stops on shots from 6 meters and those on throws from 7 meters, the Créteil goalkeeper simply disgusted the LH, with 15 saves, for a success rate of 31%. A remarkable match on his part, which allowed Créteil to already be in front at the break (17-19), before taking off at the end of the match and winning 33-36, thus gleaning their 3rd victory of the season on the Beaublanc floor.
“We are not in crisis, far from it”
After the meeting, Alberto Entrerrios fumes. The face shown by his team did not please him at all, especially in defense. “I'm not worried: I'm disgusted, angry… I'm not happy at all. For me, defense is a question of heart. You can make mistakes, but you have to put your heart into it, solidarity, activity, aggressiveness We lack all that. We can achieve it with a group that fights together, a united group. And today, we say that we have a team. united, but in defense we appear very isolated, individualists… We lack something in defense, that's nothing new”says the Spanish coach of Limoges Handball.
“The break, unfortunately, has not done us any good. There are players who are physically exhausted, others who lack rhythm, but the reality is that there are a lot of little things missing to win matches , and we were far from deserving the victory.”
For his part, LH vice-captain Nicolas Nieto talks about the atmosphere in the locker room after this poor performance at home. “A little tense… Can you imagine that after a defeat against Créteil, a team that we worked on all week in training, for which we watched I don't know how many minutes of videos, that we can't do it either in defense or in attack, when we come up against a goalkeeper who gave us two exceptional periods… It was tense in the locker room, whether it was between the coaches, between us… C 'is like that'deplores the Limougeaud pivot.
From now on, we will have to quickly find a solution to remobilize the troops. “I think we need a moment outside of handball, between us, so that we can talk a little. We are not in crisis, not at all. There are words that have come out that I accept “We're going to talk among ourselves over a little coffee. It would only bode well for the future.”concludes Nicolas Nieto.
Next meeting, now, on November 19, 2024, for a trip to the Tatran Presov floor, before going to play a match on the Brittany side, against Cesson-Rennes, on November 22.
