The next regular round of the French League (Day 6) is on November 7, but three matches of Day 7 have been played this weekend.
The match of the weekend was the clash of teams which made no mistakes in the previous rounds. Marseille hosted Strasbourg. The home team recorded a 12:8 victory. Marseille has collected seven wins in as many games. The reigning champion Strasbourg suffered the first loss after five wins.
Pays d’Aix beat Nice easily (16:8). Tourcoing and Douai shared the points in the derby of northern France (9:9).
2020/21 French League, Day 7
Marseille – Strasbourg 12:8 (5:2, 1:1, 4:2, 2:3)
Marseille: Crousillat 3, Vukicevic 3, Vernoux 2, Camarasa 2, Vanpeperstraete 1, Djurdjic 1.
Strasbourg: Valentino 3, Markovic 2, Culina 1, Babic 1, Buha 1.
Pays d’Aix – Nice 16:8 (4:2, 5:0 4:2, 3:4)
Pays d’Aix: Gagulic 4, Monneret 3, D’Souza 2, Saux 2, Popadic 2, Khasz 1, Djerkovic 1, Gluhaic 1.
Nice: Canovas 3, Bachelier 1, Butic 1, Cakic 1, Nardon 1, Gardikas 1.
Tourcoing – Douai 9:9 (1:2, 3:3, 1:2, 4:2)
Tourcoing : Randjic 6, Kujacic 2, Canonne 1.
Douai : Bouet 4, Vitrant 2, Croquet 1,Michel 1, Spooner 1
Sete – Reims on November 14
Bordeaux – Noisy-le-Sec on November 21
Montpellier bye
Marseille broke Strasbourg in the first half of the match. After the first eight minutes, the LEN Euro Cup winner led 5:2. From that point on, the distance between the teams was never smaller than three goals. Marseille controlled the match. Ugo Crousillat scored his third goal in the 12th minute of the game for 6:2. Early in the third period, the hosts had 8:3. Midway through the final period, Marseille increased the lead to 6 goals (11:5). Strasbourg reduced the gap in the last three minutes, but Marseille’s victory was never in danger. Ugo Crousillat and Ante Vukicevic were the best scorers (three goals each) in the winning team, which played without Andrija Prlainovic and Mathias Olivon. An Italian Guiseppe Valentino scored three goals for Strasbourg.
The encounter between Tourcoing and Douai was a really exciting battle. Douai earned a valuable point, and broke the series of losses in the Northern derbies (Tourcoing defeated Douai in the past six league matches in the past three years). Still, the visitors were very close to a victory, and Tourcoing has to be more satisfied with the outcome than Douai. At halftime, Douai led 5:4. Defenses, with excellent goalkeepers Dubois (Tourcoing) and Kardos (Douai) were superb in the opening minutes of the second half. There were no goals for a while. Douai finally broke the deadlock with two goals to stretch the margin to three (7:4). But, the hosts managed to equalize in the middle of the fourth period (8:8). Shortly after, Alexandre Bouet converted a penalty to give Douai a new lead (9:8). The big drama was ended 16 seconds before the final buzzer when Tourcoing’s Miroslav Randjic scored from a penalty for the final score – 9:9. Randjic was a hero of the match. He scored six goals, four in the second half.
Pays d’Aix started slowly in the match against Nice. The visiting team had a 2:1 lead in the 6th minute. But, Aix netted three quick goals by the first break and entered the second period with a 4:2 lead. In the second quarter, the hosts ruled the field, and they had a huge 9:2 advantage at halftime. After that 8:0 series by Pays d’Aix, the visitors couldn’t recover. Andro Gagulic led Pays d’Aix with four goals.
1.Marseille 7 – 21
2.Strasbourg 6 – 15
3.Noisy-le-Sec 5 – 13
4.Pays d’Aix 5 – 10
5.Montpellier 5 – 9
6.Douai 5 – 5
7.Tourcoing 5 – 4
8.Sete 5 – 3
9.Reims 5 – 3
10.Nice 5 – 1
11. Boredaux 5 – 0
