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Metz's players are going to the return fixture in Paris with an advantage of six goals from the first game seven days ago (33-27), the difference is big but not unattainable. Metz dictated the result for the majority of the game, but it needs to be said that the result was 27-25 ten minutes before the end and Metz came to the maximum six point lead in the finish of the game. Metz have maximally used their width, they rotated 12 players on the court throughout the 60 minutes, their goalkeepers were good, Pierson in the first and Glauser in the second half. Issy Paris looked for the cause of the defeat in the absence of their most efficient player this season, member of the Montenegro national team, Marija Jovanovic (third scorer in the league with 123 goals). Jovanovic injured her left ankle, and she spent the entire match on the bench to avoid worsening of the injury, so the efficiency of the offense was limited to Oftedal sisters. Second reason for the defeat is a bad day for the keeper Attingre who finished the match with measly five saves. Regarding the games against Metz, we should mention that Attingre had 18 saves in their last game against them in the league. Prior to this match, there were some information that the left back Montenegro national team member trained full-time without a problem and that she is ready to play, which gives a different dimension to Issy Paris' offense.

Metz and Issy Paris have one win each in the regular season, Metz won 36-27 at the opening of the season (Issy Paris had only 10 players on the roster for this game), while Issy Paris won the second game at home (28-24). Issy Paris finished the season in the second position, qualified directly into the play-off semi-final, which could be a minus for them competitively, because they haven't played a competitive game for almost a month before the first semi-final game against Metz. They know how to play in these situation when they are chasing a goal difference from the first game, and that is proven by this year's EHF Cup quarter-final, in which they lost the first game against Danish Holstebro by 13 goals (27-40), but they almost made a miracle in the return fixture, they won by 12 points (32-20). When I consider the information that they lost only one home game this season (their record is 8-0-1) in all three competitions, I believe that they have enough strength to win by at least two goals in tonight's return fixture. Details

Hamburg lost Dominikovic and that changed everything since he was their key defense figure. The game against Fuchse on Sunday that finished at almost 60 goals made us aware of that. In that game, unlike in this one, the stakes were high and teams were motivated. This one is different for Hamburg. Bergischer are a tricky opponent when playing home. They can make lives difficult for any team. The first option would be to bet on the home team but the odds have plummeted since yesterday when they were at 2.50 or higher. That made me turn to different options. HSV with Mahe, Pfahl, the uncontrollable Simicuo and Djordic can do well offense-wise. They played Erlangen recently and the game finished at over 60 goals. Bergischer are very confident in offense home and have often recorded high numbers against teams from their quality-range. The first h2h finished at around 40 goals but the circumstances are much different now. Hamburg are pretty exhausted after what happened in Berlin and they will have to do without some important players which should make this a more productive game.
It's important to point out that players absent at the home team also go in favor of this tip. Why? Hermann played a much more important role in defense than in offense, Nippes is the first choice right back and Dragas mostly played defense as well. Oelze is the second choice middle back (Szilagy's substitute) and that's good for the tip as well as it means Szilagy will spend more time on the floor. That is good for offense since he doesn't play defense anyway. Details

Dunkerque's last week match against PSG away was a torture which displayed all the offense problems coach Cazal has to deal with. They could be even more obvious today because Nagy, Dunkerque's key back layer, is very questionable. Dunkerque need points desperately, Champions League is at stake and they basically cannot afford to slip because the last two rounds will see them meet Montpellier and the direct rival St.Raphael. They will try hard to win points here and Creteil have what it takes to fight back. They have dropped in form significantly and have most likely have to do without two important back players today. Since coach Mazel took over, Creteil got much better on the defensive end and managed to avoid relegation on account of it. They will be motivated today to end the 5-game losing run, which tells me this will not be a game easy on the eyes. They never are with Dunkerque anyway... Details

This is the penultimate match of the season for both teams. Both are carefree and this has no importance for either result wise. That is the only reason why I'm not going with a higher stake despite the home team being in quite a lot of trouble. Bietigheim have had injury struggles all season long and have only 10 players at their disposal ahead of he last 2 rounds. Coach Albersten says he has only one wish until the end and that is for his now healthy players to stay injury-free. 6 players are on the injury-list now, two of which got on it in the last game. Three players from youth ranks joined the team late last month just to be on coach's disposal in case they are needed. The coach has have only one goal keeper and one typical linewoman, who is 17 years old, at his disposal. Fuchse are on a 5-game losing run (three in the championship and 2 at Cup final tournament) and they want to win this last match home. They are better than Bietigheim quality-wise and beat them convincingly in the head-to-head early this year away (32-23). Details

Trabzon are an offensive force only when they are playing against teams placed mid-table or at the bottom, teams on their level. In games against strong teams they never played much, and I doubt that will happen today in the opening of the best-of-two play-off series. In their two head-to-head games in the regular season, they first lost 88-68, which is not as important for this game because Hakan Semir was on the bench then, and the second one at home finished at 75-67 with Markovic as the coach. So they haven't really played much against Darussafaka, nor against Efes, Fener, some of the best defensive teams. They won't play much today either. I won't even discuss the importance of the game, but I will mention that Darussafaka have had big offensive problems in the previous weeks, Farmar's influence wasn't at an expected level, and an injury of their power forward Shurne, who will be playing today, has upset their rotation significantly. So I see this first game more as a struggle than an offensive rhapsody and this margin provides an appropriate stake. Details

Pouille is not really a player to bet on when he's the favorite, but in these matches, underdog at the ATP level and at home court, now that's the right place for Lucas to show all of his talent. It is enough to say that he has five ATP wins this season (5-5). Mayer is not a smasher, nor a typical clay court player and a lot of his game is based on serve. He is (too)often unconvincing at the return and that is where I see a chance for Pouille. The Frenchman is a good player, he has weapons to confront Mayer and put pressure on him, and on his weak return. He said that he is highly motivated, which is important for me and I wouldn't be betting on this if it was a challenger. He came here with a goal. He got the wild card, for this tournament but for RG as well, and he wants to go to Paris with confidence. There is no doubt in his motivation, and when that's the case, then Pouille has everything he needs to make Mayer's life difficult to the maximum. Details

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