The results of the seventh round of the French Championships caused big ups and downs in the standings.
Strasbourg beat Nice convincingly and moved from 5th to 3rd place, ahead of Tourcoing, which disappointed in the derby of the round. Tourcoing suffered a convincing loss to Marseille (5:13).
Sete, which had only three points two weeks ago and was in 8th position, climbed to 5th place thanks to two back-to-back victories.
2022/23 French League, Day 7
Marseille – Tourcoing 13:5 (6:1, 3:0, 3:3, 1:1)
Marseille: Crousillat 5, Vernoux 3, Marion-Vernoux 2, Vukicevic 1, Cuckovic 1, Bouet 1.
Tourcoing: Dasic 3, Durik 1, Marzouki 1.
Strasbourg – Nice 9:3 (4:1, 2:2, 0:0, 3:0)
Strasbourg: Petkovic 3, Canovas 2, Bachelier 1, Buha 1, Misic 1, I.Zivkovic 1,
Olympic Nice: Irmes 3.
Pays d’Aix – Sete 13:17 (4:3, 2:4, 1:3, 6:7)
Pays d’Aix: Dunstan 3, Drahe 3, Peisson 3, Beteille 1, Strkalj 1, Rocchietta 1, Vrdoljak 1.
Sete: Tomic 4, Furman 4, Randjic 4, , Chandieu 2, Sauton 1, Vujovic 1, Bofill 1.
Montpellier – Reims 10:8 (2:1, 3:2, 2:3, 3:2)
Montpellier: Ivankovic 4, Piot 2, Vasin 2, Vasseur 1, Mustur 1.
Reims: Culina 4, Vix 1,Babic 1, Missy 1, Solje 1.
Noisy-le-Sec bye
The clubs that faced off in the big match of the day played in the LEN cups in the Adriatic cities a few days ago. Marseille lost to Jug in the Champions League, while Tourcoing shared the points with Primorac in the LEN Euro Cup. Marseille recovered from a loss in Dubrovnik and killed all the suspense in the derby quickly. The title-holder rushed to a 4:0 lead before Tourcoing’s first goal. At halftime, it stood 9:1. Marseille’s defense weakened after the middle break, but the hosts maintained an 8-goal difference. The man of the match was Ugo Crousillat, who scored five goals.
This was the second consecutive loss for Tourcoing in the derby games. Last week, Noisy-le-Sec edged out the Lille-based side (13:12).
Strasbourg, led by Marko Petkovic, easily beat bottom-placed Nice and benefited from Tourcoing’s loss. After today’s 9:3 victory, Strasbourg moved to 3rd place.
Sete has been playing better and better. A week ago, Sete beat Montpellier after more than ten years. Encouraged by that success, Sete arrived in Aix-en-Provence and defeated Pays d’Aix in a 30-goal match. Pays d’Aix started very well. The hosts, who played without injured captain Khasz, had a 2:0 and 4:1 lead. In the middle of the second quarter, the home side was two steps ahead of Sete (6:4). But, the visitors netted three goals in a row in the last four minutes of the first half and earned a 7:6 advantage before the middle break. From that point on, they were always in front. Early in the third quarter, Sete doubled the distance (8:6). Pays d’Aix halved the deficit (7:8). But Sete replied with three goals, building an 11:7 lead in the 25th minute. Even 13 goals were scored in the final eight minutes. Still, Sete’s win wasn’t in danger.
Sete caught up with Tourcoing in points.
Montpellier dictated the pace throughout the game against Reims, but it had to work hard to secure the points. Early in the third quarter, Montpellier had a 6:3 advantage. Reims leveled at 6:5. However, Montpellier regained a 3-goal advantage (9:6) in the 27th minute. Reims cut the deficit (8:9), but it had no answer after Ivankovic converted a penalty for 10:8 in the 30th minute.
1. Marseille 7– 21
2. Noisy-le-Sec 5 – 14
3. Strasbourg 6 – 11
4. Tourcoing 6 – 9
5. Sete 6 –9
6. Reims 6 – 7
7. Montpellier 6 – 6
8. Pays d’Aix 6 – 4
9. Nice 6 – 0
