For the resumption of competitions after the international break, HBC Nantes traveled to Aix-en-Provence for the first match of a long series before starting the April block. A trap meeting which will have kept the supporters in suspense, with a burning end to the match and a mental victory in the final moments (28-29).
After this resumption in the league, the “H” now has its eyes fixed on the Champions League play-offs. Our opponents in the round of 16: the Danes of GOG, a unique opponent according to Grégory Cojean: “We will have to prepare ourselves to see a team that bases its game on a 7 against 6, that is their philosophy. We expect a different type of game and a different rhythm than usual. It is a style of play that they have mastered, we will have to be good in adaptation and in the balance of power.”
The “H” coach believes that it will be necessary “succeed in setting traps for GOG, be playful against this team. It will be difficult to stifle them, we will have to take them more into certain areas of play.”
According to him, this match could be testing with this particular style of play: “We will have to agree to concede goals, to be less able to neutralize, to be more mobile. It will be necessary to block their attacking game and recover balls to win and qualify.”
These 1/8 elimination rounds will be played in two stages: a first leg match in Denmark this Wednesday April 1 at 8:45 p.m., to be viewed at the Club House, and a return match at the H Arena a week later, Wednesday April 8 at 8:45 p.m.
Two matches with a different approach to the group stage matches: “I approach this double confrontation by telling myself that it lasts 120 minutes. Which means that, when we finish the match away, we will only be at half-time. We have the example of Plock from last year, at the end of the match at home, we were -3. We had a half of 60 minutes to come back.
Accustomed to playing in the European Cup, this club, which trained Pytlick and Gidsel, faced HBC Nantes in 2016 and more recently in 2021, with its two nuggets.
Even if our Violets had not lost against the Danes that season (27-24 victory at the H Arena, and draw, 29-29 at GOG), they had already given our Nantais a hard time. Grégory Cojean concludes “It’s a very educational club that manages to renew itself. Of course, there is the training, but for me it is above all the style of play which differentiates this team. They play in a very uninhibited way, with an “everything to win” mentality. We would not have imagined seeing them in this 5th place at the end of the group stages, with interesting away victories: we will have to be vigilant.”
