At the end of a very close match last night, Dunkirk took over Istres 28-26. This seventh consecutive defeat sends the Bulls to a relegation place.
They did more than resist, but it still wasn’t enough. The Istrian handball players are this morning relegated to the Liqui Moly Starligue after their very narrow defeat at Dunkirk 28/26. Their 7th loss in a row in the championship!
However, there has been improvement compared to the last matches. “We had to go for victory with guts against a great team from Istres who made life very difficult for us.“, recognized the northern pivot Benjamin Afgour at the microphone of NHL TV. The Provencals indeed gave everything last night, even taking the best at the start of the match (3/6).
In this meeting in which the score constantly shifted from one side to the other, Gilles Derot’s men managed to keep a short lead at the break (16/17, 30th). The Northerners took a break in the middle of the second period (22/23, 44th to 26/23, 50th) but the Taureaux in turn got back together (26/26, 57th) with Raphaël Kotters still as active despite the waste (7 goals at 50%, 8 assists).
“It was very important to have a match like that.”
Everything came down to the final moments of the match. The Northerners were able to count on an imperial Alejandro Romero in the cages, with 17 decisive saves, including a last one which deprived Torben Petersen of an 8th goal and above all of a new equalizing ball one minute from the end.
“It was very important to have a match like that, because the last four weeks have been very hard. Today we had a good match but we had problems in attack and the opposing goalkeeper had a great match“, estimated Istres goalkeeper Nick Deekens (6 saves, 27%) at the NHL TV microphone.
Before the winter break, the Istreens (15th, 8 points) have one last match to play: a particularly important derby against the Aixois du PAUC (9th, 12 points) on Sunday December 22 at 6:45 p.m. at the Halle Polyvalente. With now two points behind the first non-relegation place Cesson, taking points will be essential and the supporters will have their role to play! “Against Aix, I hope that the public will give us a great atmosphere, like the one there was in Dunkirk.”wished goalkeeper Nick Deekens.
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