Since the officialization of its ambitions, through a powerful summer transfer window, Montpellier trains and training sessions. Last night in Grammont, it was a meeting in intensity, facing Barcelona, ​​that we could follow from the field.

Well-filled grandstands, guaranteed show
The kickoff of the match, originally scheduled for 18:00, was shifted by 15 minutes given the influx to training center Grammont, as what play in the middle of the week is not necessarily a bad economic operation, to condition to communicate well on social networks.
No sooner had we recovered our accreditation than we came face to face with Patrice Lair, the new counselor for women; he knows the FC Barcelona team well for having met them at the time when he coached Lyon. "It will be an interesting match to follow" and "strong lessons to finalize the preparation" before finding the D1 "he confided.

Last year, the Barcelonese played against Paris-Saint-Germain in the Valais Cup and the match ended with a series of shots on goal that saw Paris qualify for the final on the wire.

As you can see, by choosing to play against a solid team, Jean-Louis Saez wanted to test his squad and make the final adjustments. Except that, on the score sheet, there are missing these players who could have an important role in the game system: Sandie Toletti, Genessee Daughetee, Rumi Utsugi or Laetitia Tonazzi. Fortunately, most new recruits should benefit from playing time, so that we can get an idea about the automatisms and interesting associations.

Montpellier, future dolphin of Lyon?
From the first minutes, the Spanish will be very pushy, playing the offensive card through a very aggressive pressing, they will really cause problems to Montpellier who can not put their game in the midfield, the battle is severe to launch the attackers, but the advantage is clearly for Barcelona. The pailladine defense goes on several occasions to get speed by Irene del Río.
At 7 ', while the position of offside is flagrant, except for the referee apparently, it opens the scoring while Laetitia Philippe remains motionless in front of his cage ... Everyone was waiting for this whistle, it is not never come!
Nevertheless, this will wake up the MHSC, but especially test its ability to return to the score, the one that had missed so much in the beginning of the 2014-2015 season. This is what differentiates good teams, big teams.
Unfortunately, we are going to attend a festival of missed opportunities around the cages of Barça. Each of them, Valérie Gauvin and Sofia Jakobsson, will try their luck: either they clashed with the defense well in place, or their gestures were sorely lacking precision ...
After the hydration break, 3 players will stand out: Viviane Asseyi (coming into play instead of Valérie Gauvin), Marie-Charlotte Léger and Andressa Alves.
Nothing helps, at the end of this 1st period, the score is always in favor of the FCB.

2nd period, new intentions and equalization
Back in the field, we feel that Kelly Gadéa and her teammates are driven by other intentions. They will literally confiscate the ball to their opponent and get opportunity on occasion. In the right aisle, Marion Torrent is very leggy and distills very relevant passes, in the timing, in short as we like.
Still, it does not pass ... Between the crossbar and a goalkeeper who makes a good match, hard to find the way to the nets, maybe on set kick? Because yes, for a few minutes, the mistakes are multiplying, the Blaugranas seem to be annoyed by the arbitration and according to the songs that emanate from the platform, they are not the only ones.

In the closing seconds of the match, after 3 unsuccessful attempts, Sofia Jakobsson scores and offers her team a deserved draw.

What will be remembered from this match is that if Montpellier managed to solve its finishing problems, it will hurt a lot. The integration of new players, as for Olympique Lyonnais, seems to be acquired and it is a very close collective that will evolve in the league.
However, all this is subject to many parameters and could as well give rise to a general failure: business to follow!

Photo credit: Cyrielle B - Sport'N'Pics