They did it! The OGC Nice handball players secured their spot in the semi-finals of the Coupe de France last night. But it was a tough battle…
Facing exceptionally tenacious opponents from Nantes, the players from Nice, who were trailing for nearly the entire match, had to wait until the very last minute of play to take the lead and clinch the victory (23-22).
An incredible scenario considering how much Sébastien Gardillou’s players seemed to struggle for 55 minutes.
Dominated from start to finish in the first half, Nice returned to the locker room trailing by 2 goals (13-15), despite the outstanding performance of Alexandra Lacrabère (7 goals in the first half).
Returning from the break with better intentions, Nice believed they had the upper hand by taking the lead for the first time with 15 minutes remaining. (18-17) But they hadn’t counted on a spectacular performance from Jovana Stoiljkovic (9 goals last night) who enabled Nantes to regain their 2-goal cushion at the start of Money Time (20-22, 55th minute).
Deprived of their best player for 2 minutes, the Nantes team finally faltered, and Nice quickly capitalized on this. Hornyak equalized (22-22, 58th minute) and then Rocha, who had been inaccurate until then (0/4), scored her only goal of the match to put OGC ahead (23-22, 59th minute). The final attack from Nantes yielded nothing, and thus thanks to a final 3-0 run, Nice clinched their qualification.
A Coupe de France semi-final (note: as in 2013-14) and a Coupe de la Ligue semi-final against Issy-Paris: this Nice team loves to play in the VIP sections. Proof of their enormous potential when the squad is complete.
The players from Nice are now just one victory away from the final at the AccorHotels Arena in Bercy, with the semi-final set for April 20th.
