Montpellier earn hard-fought win
Montpellier earn hard-fought win
After a 32:22 win against Metalurg in the first round of VELUX EHF Champions League 2017/18 Group Phase matches, Montpellier HB endured 45 minutes of pressure in Russia before finishing the game strong to earn a 28:24 victory against Chekhovskie Medvedi on Saturday afternoon.
• A 6:0 partial for Montpellier between the 50th and 54th minute decides the Round 2 game in favour of the visitors
• Valentin Porte and Michel Guigou finish as Montpellier’s top scorers with eight and seven goals, respectively
• Montpellier now lead the group with four points, while Chekhovskie record their second consecutive loss
GROUP D
Chekhovskie Medvedi (RUS) vs Montpellier HB (FRA) 24:28 (13:14)
It is hard to forget a 36:23 drubbing, which the Russian team experienced in Round 1 at the hands of HC Motor Zaporozhye. Therefore, it was no surprise that Chekhovskie were motivated to start strong and earned an early 4:1 lead against Montpellier on Saturday afternoon.
But the French side did not back down. A 9:4 partial, spurred by a change in their defence from a 6-0 system to an aggressive 5-1, saw Montpellier take the lead.
Led by a near perfect half from Valentin Porte and Michel Guigou, Montpellier maintained the upper hand, though they never managed to stretch their advantage to more than three goals thanks to a flurry of saves from Dmitry Pavlenko.
Decisive partial for the win
A surprising 3:0 partial from the hosts in the first six minutes of the second half saw the Bears back in contention.
Chekhovskie stayed with Montpellier until the final 10 minutes of the match, when the guests powered to a 6:0 partial that built an unassailable lead the Russian hosts could not overturn.
