“It really clicked”, 4 games from the end of the season, GBDH can still believe in the playoffs

Seventh in the Proligue championship, Grand Besançon Doubs Handball (GBDH) coached by Christophe Viennet will host Sélestat this Friday, April 19 at the Palais des Sports with the aim of paving the way to the playoffs. To believe in the feat, the bisons have 4 games to play and must finish in the top six in the championship.

It’s a bit like the icing on the cake, the little spice at the end of the season that Grand Besançon Doubs Handball (GBDH) didn’t necessarily expect. Four days before the end of the championship, the Bisons are in seventh place in the Proligue championship (23 points) and still in the race to compete in the playoffs (teams ranked between 3 and 6^e place will play playoff matches to try to reach the last four of the accession to the Starligue, the French first division). “It’s cool. In every game we have something to play for.” confided Bisontin left winger Gauthier Morvan to our colleagues from Est Républicain, “Our audience understands that we can make a difference. We must continue like this.”

4 games, 4 finals

It must be said, yes. Unlike last year, the Bisontins offered themselves a very tempting end to the season, with three final high-stakes games to be played at home, and just one trip, to Villeurbane, on May 3. Four meetings in total, which all of Christophe Viennet’s men want to approach as “small finals”, starting with the reception of the Alsatians of Sélestat (current 4th in the Proligue), this Friday, April 19, at the Palais des Sports Ghani Yalouz.

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“If we want to go higher, we absolutely have to win this game” remembers the young GBDH goalkeeper Clément Franck, who just arrived from Sélestat last summer. “We really want to play this last 4 at the end of the season.” confides Bisontin coach Christophe Viennet, “We are close to the playoffs and I am interested to see how our team can challenge itself.he continues.

Unfortunately, before facing Sélestat, then Sarrebourg (April 26) and finally Nancy (May 17), the Bisontines burned a first cartridge last Saturday, narrowly losing on the floor to Frontignan (35-33). A narrow defeat that forces the Doubistes to perform flawlessly at the end of the season, and at the same time hope for a misstep from one of their two direct opponents: Frontignan and Cherbourg, ranked 5 and 6 respectively in the Proligue. “We wanted to tease the top teams. Now these are direct elimination matches.”rightly emphasizes Gauthier Morvan.

The good news is a favorable schedule with these three games to be played at home, in a sports center that has become the impregnable fortress of the Bisontines in recent months. Christophe Viennet’s men have simply gone unbeaten since December 15 (6 wins in 6 games). “I don’t really know what changed, it was kind of a click” agreed the left wing of the GBDH Gauthier Morvan in the columns of the local press, “The audience is with us, more and more. It’s not for nothing that we win all our home games.”.

A scenario that nevertheless stands in contrast to the much more complicated start to the season for the Bisontin handball players (only 2 wins in the first 6 games of the season at home). The reinforcements, who arrived mid-season (Lucas Jametal, Jothan Mandiangu, Gauthier Bonnissol) did a lot of good for the Doubist squad, decimated by injuries to the leaders at the end of the year.

Massacre at the infirmary

Lucas Hubert and Adrien Claire both suffered cruciate ligament ruptures a month apart, meaning the end of their season. However, the two players were the strong men of GBDH for this season 2023-2024, but Christophe Viennet’s staff knew how to come back very well by making the right moves, and by handing playing time to the young players.

It is in this positive context that the handball club Bisontin is approaching these crucial final weeks of the championship to secure a place among the elite in French handball. But the road is still long: to do this, it will be necessary to finish in the first six of the rankings, then win a playoff match and finish – at least – in the first two of the last four that will take place in Sélestat , at the very end of the season (June 1 and 2).