Nantes-Chambery: who will take the first LNH derby this season?

Nantes – Chambery: a match that will bring the first excitements in the new handball season in the French LNH.  

The LNH started last week offering us several exciting matches in which most of the favorites had an easy way to the victory. The second round offers us the first derby for this season between the third and the fifth team from the last season: Nantes vs Chambery. Two teams that had easy wins in the first round, two teams that pretend on the highest classification in the end of the year and two rivals whose duels are considered to be one of the most attractive for watching in the LNH. Whether you are a handball fan or just someone who like to bet on sports in France, this is a match you should not miss.

The last LNH season, however, didn’t bring much excitement into their mutual matches. In the first part of the season Chambery received the team of Nantes in the famous Le Phare arena defeating them with 34-29, in a match in which they had an amazing 69% success in the attack. In the match played in La Trocardiere, Nantes returned the defeat with a high victory of 33-25. However this big difference in the mutual matches was not characteristic for the past seasons. Instead, the matches between Chambery and Nantes have always been filled with a special tension and uncertainty, until the last moments. And that is the kind of match we are expecting to see this season too.

Nantes

Nantes starts this handball season with huge ambitions and expectations. They are part of the EHF Champions League where they had a draw debut last week in Ukraine, and they want to improve the last year’s placement in the LNH. The team of Thierry Anti is slowly but surely developing itself into an integrated collective that can defeat any team in the league. They incorporated in the squad for this season several experienced players coming from European powerhouses such as Dominik Klein who came from the team of THW Kiel and Eduardo Gurbindo coming from the team of FC Barcelona.

• Nantes counts on the experience of several ex-European club champions in the squad

• Chambery to fight for coming back in the top three in LNH

• Sportsbooks consider Nantes to be a favorite in the match

With the rest of the squad comprised by the mix of young and experienced players such as David Balaguer (ex-Barcelona), Oliver Nyokas (ex-French representative), Nicolas Claire, Theo Deorot, Cyril Demoulin (ex-Toulouse), we can say with certainty that Nantes is super equipped for a struggle for high placement in the LNH. Another circumstance worth mentioning is the affiliation of the Spanish handball legend, Alberto Entrerrios in the coaching duo of the team. With his enormous experience spent in handball giants of the past such as Processa Ademar and Ciudad Real, Entrerrios will undoubtedly contribute to improvement of the strategic aspects in Nantes game. A summary of all this would be the following: don’t underestimate Nantes when thinking about the favorites in LNH this season!

Chambery

As internet betting sites in EU state, Chambery is definitely far from the champion’s year in 2001, but still belonging to the top of the French club handball. Until few years ago and the emergence of Paris Saint-Germain, Chambery was a regular participant in the EHF Champions League. Nowadays, however, with much limited rooster and in a greater competition in France, Chambery leaded by the former Macedonian coach Ivica Obrvan is again heading towards the first three positions in the LNH again. Last year they ended up 5th in the league and are currently aiming to improve that placement.

This season they start without Timothey N’Guessan, who flee to Barcelona, and will have to combine the left position with Bicanic, Briffe or Minel. On the right wing position they have a considerable strengthening with the coming of Fahrudin Melic from the team of PSG, and that seems to be all the transfers that Chambery did in the past summer. Whether these changes are sufficient for the top of LNH is something we will see by the end of the season. One thing is sure: the team is composed of experienced players, who know themselves well and who can play a collective handball able to oppose any LNH team.

The betting odds

Online sportsbooks in Austria such as bwin give 1.40 odds to the team of Nantes for the win, leaving Chambery way behind with 3.50. The draw between these two teams is evaluated by the Austrian bookies on incredible 10.00. Other sportsbooks, such as Betvictor, provide more or less similar odds for the French derby of the second LNH round. To the host team of Nantes they give a bit higher betting odds of 1.47 for a win, while Chambery are estimated on 3.30. The draw is 8.50. In our views the match is far from a clear and easy win for Nantes, especially if we have in mind the fact that the starts of the seasons, in front of the home crowd, are always full of pressure that many hosts cannot bear. In this respect Nantes is a favorite but not such that Chambery can not surprise!