A look back on Nîmes - PSG Handball

News

On 3 October 2019, Paris Saint-Germain Handball travelled to the Parnasse in Nîmes, an arena in which they were winless for two seasons. In Lidl StarLigue Round 5 action, these two top teams were battling to consolidate their place in the upper reaches of the table.

After winning their first four league matches, Les Rouge et Bleu were facing another top-flight outfit, who had knocked Montpellier out of the league three games earlier (25-24). The Nîmes squad has a number of strengths, including the Michaël Guigou, who arrived during the summer. Also in the squad is French international and future Parisian Elohim Prandi (top scorer for his team this term with 94 goals).

Last season, only two French sides managed to take points from our team - one of which were Nîmes, who managed a draw at home to the capital club (28-28). The previous season, the Parisians had not fared any better in this arena, losing 26-24 in the south of France.

20:45: kick-off time, both teams were ready to fight!

Paris got off to the better start. Raul Gonzalez's men quickly pulled ahead thanks to the unstoppable Nedim Remili (ten goals from 15 attempts over the course of the match), and were already four points clear after ten minutes (3-7). But our right-back was only just getting starting in what turned out to be an awesome performance and still kept his team in front for the rest of the first half.

The Parisian back-line was very skilful that day. Like Nedim, Kim Ekdahl du Rietz was on fire, notably sharp in front of the goal guarded by Rémi Desbonnet and Téodor Paul. The Swedish international, who scored six goals that evening, bagged his 100th Lidl StarLigue goal in the process.

View this post on Instagram

Face à l'@usam_nimes_gard, @duurietz vient d'inscrire son 100eme but en @lidlstarligue ! #NIMPSG

A post shared by Paris Saint-Germain Handball (@psghandofficiel) on Oct 3, 2019 at 11:59am PDT

A dominant attacking performance that saw the capital club take their lead into the break.

As the second half began, Paris Saint-Germain Handball maintained their dominance, with Kim combining the efficient with the spectacular as he fired into the top corner from an improbable angle (40': 18-24).

Despite the home side's fight-back, in an arena roaring for their Green Team (50': 25-27), our players did better than resist. Notably thanks to the excellent Vincent Gérard, who won ten of his one-on-ones with the Nîmes forwards to put a dampener on their evening (52': 25-29).

Les Rouge et Bleu, who at no stage fell behind in the match, maintained their three-point advantage right to the end, consolidating their lead atop the table and clinching their fifth consecutive Lidl StarLigue victory.

Check out video highlights from the match:

(Credits : J. Azouze/PSG)