Beneficiaries of an invitation to the European League (C2), Chambéry and Chambray discovered their opponents in the first preliminary round on Tuesday, the draw of which was carried out at the headquarters of the European Federation (EHF) in Vienna. Among the men, the Savoyards (5th of Liqui Moly Star League), for their return after two seasons without Europe, will face Romanian club Constanta between August 27 and September 4 (go away).
“Constanta is a little-known team with many Romanian players. »
Erick Mathé, coach of Chambéry
An opponent who seems to be on the ropes of “Team Chambé”. Chambéry had already faced Constanta in 2013-2014, in the group stage of the EHF Cup (C2) (29-29, 29-35).
“Happy to be back in the European Cup and to have a slightly different daily life, declared Erick Mathé, the Chambéry coach. Constanta is a little-known team with many quality Romanian players. We hope to pass this first round to go to the next one and pursue our objective of integrating the group stage. »
No invitation for Nîmes
Montpellier (4th in Starligue) will enter the second preliminary round at the end of September, while Aix (3rd) is directly qualified for the group stage which will begin on October 25. There will be just three French clubs in the running, with the Starligue having lost a representative after falling from 2nd to 3rd place in the European Federation rankings. Nîmes (6th) ultimately did not get the additional invitation he was hoping for following the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian clubs.
Among women, Chambray (6th in Butagaz Energy League) inherited a fairly large piece with the Germans of Thüringer, regulars in the Champions League, even if the latter have lost some of their luster in the last two years. These two matches, between October 8 and 16 (going to Touraine), will represent a reunion for Chambraysian rookie Manon Houette, who played in Thüringer during the 2016-2017 season.
Besançon (4th) and Nantes (5th) are directly qualified for the second round (December 3-11) while Paris 92 (3rd) already holds its ticket for the group stage, from January 7, 2023.
Leave a Reply