Nantes, despite the absence of its two starting goalkeepers, offered good resistance to the Germans of Kiel in their room before giving up definitively (37-33), on Thursday during the 9th day of the Champions League. Nantes are now in fourth place in the table.
Nantes was dominated this Thursday evening in the group stage of the Champions League on the Kiel parquet (33-37). The “H” thus mortgages its chances of finishing in one of the first two places in Group B, which qualifies for the quarter-finals without going through the play-offs: it is five points behind leaders FC Barcelona (17 points) and four over Kielce.
Nantes, in any case almost sure of seeing the play-offs (places 3 to 6), will play the maximum for the quarter-finals against the Catalans next week at home. They will probably still be without their two goalkeepers, Ivan Pesic (adductor) and Viktor Hallgrimsson (elbow), unless the latter recovers faster than expected from the injury.
bullet losses
Led 20-18 at half-time, Nantes never managed to get back on level terms, despite the hints of Slovenian master Rok Obvnicek, in shooting (5/6) and distribution. Left-backs Alexandre Cavalcanti (3/5) and right-back Jorge Maqueda (2/4) were less successful, and the “H” paid for some hasty shots or easy ball losses that prevented him from picking up.
As in the 53rd minute: back in length (31-30), Valero Rivera’s teammates scored a quick goal then another on a ball lost by Linus Persson (33-30). Just over a minute later, Baptiste Damatrin-Bertrand wasted an opportunity to come back wide, hampered on the counterattack by a German defense on the verge of error.
The “H”, winner of eight goals in the first leg (38-30), still managed to maintain their particular gap over the German club.
