When you wake up this morning, Tours is hungover. Yesterday in Grenon, while the TVB found the warm lights of a final phase of the Champions League, the evening turned into a missed opportunity. Already in the warm-up, things took a nasty turn, with the injury of his passer and playmaker, Zeljko Coric, falling on the foot of Benjamin Diez. The sign was not good. And neither would the match unfortunately. Beaten dryly at home (0-3), the eight-time champion of France is now forced to an authentic exploit in Germany next Wednesday (victory in 3 or 4 sets, then during the golden set), if he wants to invite at the quarter-final table. “Players’ heads flipped when we lost our captain. A piece of our chess set has fallen»noted, disappointed the Tours coach, Marcelo Fronckowiak in the columns of The team.
Already deprived of two centrals, Nascimento Dos Santos and Thiébault Bruckert, Tours did what he could and if he had grabbed the first set, maybe the flame would have sprung up. But Dramé Neto (14 pts) was caught by the German counter at 23-24 and hope wavered.
For Montpellier, on the other hand, the new life in the CEV Cup got off to a magnificent start with a victory (3-1) on Tuesday evening in the quarter-final first leg against Piacenza of Olympic champion leader Antoine Brizard. Despite the loss of the first set, the MHSC did not disunite to overthrow the Transalpins and fully play their luck in Italy next week. Marin Dukic (24 pts) and Théo Faure (21 pts) were the big guys in the Hérault attack.
Another French team will see the quarter-finals of the CEV Cup, in this case the girls of the VMA! Victorious without really shaking from Budapest (3-1), the Mulhousiennes completed the group stage of the Champions League with a second success, the 14th in the history of the club in the LDC, and therefore granted themselves third place in the pool, which propels them into the quarter-finals of the CEV Cup. Best scorer and blocker of VM, the Belgian Silke Van Avermaet (13 pts including 4 blocks) played a large part in this qualification.
Finally, Le Cannet, beaten in Italy (3-1), did not manage to steal first place in the group from Vero Volley Milano. For his return to the Cannettan bench, Mladen Kasic had a big challenge ahead. He was not far from succeeding. The champion of France, carried in attack by Vita Akimova (21 pts), pocketed the first set and was very close to winning the second! But the Transalpines, finally returned to a round everywhere, would then be intransigent. Second in Pool B, Le Cannet (4 wins – 2 losses) continues the adventure in the Champions League, but will have to go through a round of 16.