Are you ready for the new season of the French handball LNH Division 1?
Posted: September 9, 2016
Updated: October 6, 2017
The 2016/2017 LNH Division 1 to be a struggle of Paris Saint-Germain for winning the triple crown in the French handball.
It was not a long time ago when all the talk about the powerful handball leagues in Europe was related mainly to two countries: Spain and Germany. The ASOBAL league, as the league that gave most European Champions so far, and the HBL as the riches handball league, were considered to be the best leagues in the world making everything else more or a less a competition from another rank. However things have drastically change after 4 years ago when the ASOBAL league lost most of its competitiveness, due to the bankruptcy of several clubs, the culmination of which was the disappearance of BM Atletico Madrid, a reformation of the legendary Ciudad Real.
• LNH took the primacy of ASOBAL
• PSG to conquer all three titles in France
• Montpellier to give strong resistance to PSG attacks
This was a time for move of capital and prosperity of leagues that were not as established as the two mentioned. And which league could better benefit of this situation than the one of the best national handball team in history: the French one. As online sportsbooks in EU note additional fuel to the whole process of development of LNH was the formation of a super-powerful Paris Saint-Germain due to the investments of the Arab owners. They succeed to engage with two of the top 5 players of today handball such as Nikola Karabatic and Mikkel Hansen, and the investment certainly pay off. This year LNH is the only league beside the German HBL with three teams in the reformed EHF Champions League: an indication that things in the handball world have changed. And they changed on the better for LNH.
PSG biggest favorites for the title in the 2016/2017 season of the French Handball LNH Division 1
The main contenders in this year’s LNH sesons are again Paris Saint-Germain. All of you who like to bet on sports in France can certainly place a wager on the Saints without many risk concerning the epilogue. However the last year showed that PSG are not absolute rulers of the French handball and all of you who like to bet on sports in France can certainly put a wager that they will not have an easy taks this year too. They won the title in the League but missed the chance to get two more trophies and complete a perfect season. Montpellier was the team that won the French Cup and the French League Cup making the season in the LNH more than interesting.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=okcte5V3oHY
Uwe Gensheimer is the latest acquisition of the team from Paris which completes an amazing starting seven of the Saints with: Omeyer on the goasl, Gensheimer and Abalo on the wing positions, Luka Karabatic on the pivot position and a back line composed of Mikkel Hansen, Nikola Karabatic and Luka Stepancic. The team of the famous Noka Serdarusic is certainly a dream team but that brings lots of responsibility, meaning that nothing except the triple crown in France would be sufficient for the Saints this year.
Montpellier to prevent a perfect season of PSG
Montpellier is certainly the greatest rival of PSG for the title in the French championship. There was a time when they were synonym for the French club handball, becoming ultimately champions of Europe in 2003. But times change. And so do the status of the handball teams. In comparison to the absolute favorites PSG, now they are only their main opponents for the title. As internet betting sites in Germany report, the Slovenians in the team Dragan Gajic and Matej Gaber already left the club but new players came which will offer some “fresh blood” in the team from the south of France such as Miha Zvizej, the excellent on the last Olympics, Valentin Porte, and the talented goalkeeper Nikola Portner. Whether they will add enough fuel in Montpellier for some title in the upcoming year, we are soon about to find out.
Can Nantes, Chambery and Co. to oppose these two powerhouses?
Although PSG seems to be a class on their own, they are not undefeatable. And that is the main difference between for example Barcelona in Spain and PSG in France. France has far more competitive teams that can certainly defeat any team on their home ground. This poses the question whether there are teams that can surprise PSG and Montpellier and fight for the title? It is difficult to simply answer positively this question. However we can with certainty claim that there are teams in France able to complicate the plans of any team. To this group belong the teams for example of Nantes, Chambery and Saint Raphael.
In all of these clubs there are important players joining that can definitely make a difference in improving the play of the teams. That is the case for instance with Dani Sarmiento coming from Barcelona to the team of Saint Raphael, or Eduardo Gurbindo , Dominik Klein and Cyril Demoulin in Nantes. Their competitiveness in general is out of question but whether they can steal some of the titles already reserved for struggle between PSG and Montpellier is something we cannot predict.