For the last match of 2022, HBC Nantes hosted PSG in a sold-out Neodif XXL. After a long fight, Grégory Cojean’s players lost in the last minutes of the match (32-33). At the buzzer, Valero Rivera could have equalized, but he missed his penalty against Andreas Palicka.
Thanks to this stoppage, PSG, eight-time defending champion, leaves HBC Nantes on the 3rd provisional step, two points behind the two co-leaders. And this despite the breathtaking form of left-back Thibaud Briet, who broke his personal best with 10 goals in the evening.
Boosted atmosphere
In the supercharged atmosphere of the XXL, the temporary Nantes hall with more than 10,300 spectators, the Parisians started off on the wrong foot, with successive temporary exclusions from the Karabatic brothers.
As soon as the debates opened, the Nantes people took a two-goal lead, and worked to hold them, helped by an unusual Parisian feverishness in front of goal.
Deprived of its pivot Kamil Syprzak (fatigue fracture of the fibula) and its half-center Luc Steins (family reason), PSG remained on two defeats in a row against Magdeburg in the Champions League and Montpellier in its garden of the Starligue, after a series of 18 consecutive victories in all competitions.
Breathtaking end to the game
But the Parisians were able to stay in touch with great defensive streaks and growing ease in attack. And following three consecutive saves from Andreas Palicka, they equalized and regained the advantage (12-13, 25th) against more drafty and less enterprising Nantes.
When they returned from the locker room, the “H” again had a good time, carried in turn by a series of saves from their goalkeeper Manuel Gaspar, which allowed the Nantes people to regain a two-goal lead (20-18 , 38th).
As in the first period, the Parisians accelerated in the middle of the period to regain control (23-24, 43rd), without however managing to take shelter.
In a breathless final, Nantes managed to come back up to PSG 25 seconds from the final whistle, but not to convert the match point.