Marseille and Lille win the Coupe de France in Montpellier, MWP fourth in the men's event

Face à Aix, Montpellier n’a pas tenu le rythme. Midi Libre – LF

Les Trophées Pierre-Garsau et Alice-Milliat ont animé la piscine olympique de Montpellier pendant trois jours. S’ils sont passés près d’atteindre la finale, les locaux ont finalement échoué au pied du podium.

Water polo is a sport played seven against seven, and in the end, Marseille wins. Already four-time defending champions, the players from Bouches-du-Rhône once again won the Pierre-Garsau Trophy (French Cup) which took place over three days in the Olympic swimming pool in Montpellier.

In the final on Sunday, under the gaze of Les Bleus coach Florian Bruzzo, the Cercle des Nageurs de Marseille beat Strasbourg (13-10). They could savour this success all the more since they came close to a surprise elimination on Saturday in the semi-final against Montpellier. The locals lost by one goal to the ogre of French water polo (14-13).

Montpellier frustrated

After having started by eliminating Sète in the quarter-finals (14-12), Montpellier came up against Aix-en-Provence in the match for third place (11-7). They were leading by five goals to four at half-time after two well-controlled first periods. But their opponents were more effective in the rest and the end of the match, particularly on the defensive side. MWP finished in a frustrating fourth place.

For its part, Sète finished the tournament on a high note after being outclassed by the league's bottom team Taverny in the first classification match (21-12). Anthony Rossi and his partners then avenged the affront by dominating Nice thanks to a hat-trick from Sauton (13-12). They thus avoided finishing in last place in the competition.

At the same time, the Alice-Milliat Trophy was being played, the equivalent of the Women's French Cup. And unsurprisingly, Lille won the competition. The Northerners first outclassed Nice in the semi-final on Saturday (18-6) before martyring Nancy in the final this Sunday with the resounding score of 25 to 5. Winner of Bordeaux in the small final (10-4), Nice completes the podium.

Rankings. Pierre-Garsau Trophy: 1. Marseille, 2. Strasbourg, 3. Aix-en-Provence, 4. Montpellier, 5. Reims, 6. Taverny, 7. Sète, 8. Nice. Alice-Milliat Trophy: 1. Lille, 2. Nancy, 3. Nice, 4. Bordeaux, 5. Toulon, Saint-Jean-d’Angély.