Champions League: In Portugal it all starts again for MHB on Thursday night

Forget everything you’ve seen so far. With play-off matches and soon the quarter-finals where Barcelona, ​​Celchi, Agent and Aalborg eagerly await, you will enter the Champions League in another dimension.

From now on, there are no more reruns or possible catch-up days. It makes or breaks a simple round trip. No one has found a better way to give attention to competition.

It is a new beginning, a new test begins and Montpellier is still there, lurking in the shadows, in the skin of the second knife, which he prefers. First step on the road to the fourth final in Cologne: Porto, another major intruder.

The match of seven players without a goalkeeper

List the sixteen players from the Portuguese workforce, this Thursday evening in Do Dragao StadiumShe has a headache, plays voodoo dolls while waiting for a spade. For several seasons now, Silva, Magalhaus, Etoria and others from Branquino have been chasing the nights of all European teams.

Fed within Spanish handball, mother by a few coaches from the north, mostly Swedes, and maintained by multi-sport clubs with unlimited financial power, all these boys have gone from shadow to light.

To the point of kicking Croats out of the last Olympics with the national team or going to bite the calves of top Europeans in the Champions League (editor’s note: a draw in Barcelona this season for example).

“We saw them come five or six years ago.”Patrice Cannaier, who went twice to hunt the best items, agrees. Gilberto Duarte is still from Montpellier. Borges, preferred to return to the country, along with Benfica.

Portuguese handball in general and Porto handball in particular rely on a solid defensive base and great players. “Especially the match of the seven, without a goalkeeper, which they master perfectly”warns Diego Simonet, who recalls the damage caused by this tactic in 2021 (23-23 on the way, 22-27 defeat in the return to Montpellier).

There is no reason to change that on Thursday evening. Undoubtedly, it would also be necessary to sever the relationship between Silva (the leader) and his appearance or interlocutor. But since everything changes from today, MHB, who is still doing very well in Nimes, can hope to win.