All you need to know about Elverum - PSG Handball

News

Paris Saint-Germain Handball's European epic continues! On Wednesday the capital club travels to Norway to challenge Elverum in the first leg of their EHF Champions League round of 16 tie.

ARRIVED ON TUESDAY

Raul Gonzalez's men arrived on Tuesday, in the middle of the day, in Norway. They were able to participate in a training session on site.

HOW THEY GOT HERE

During the group stage, the Norwegian side played in Group A. Despite nine defeats, two draws and three wins, they managed to win their decisive matches. They finished sixth, with the same number of points as seventh-placed Zagreb, who missed out. Thanks to a draw in Croatia (27-27)) and a win at home (30-25), Elverum had the better head-to-head record and finished among the six qualified teams.

As for Les Rouge et Bleu, they had to play in a very tough group, which included Barcelona, Kielce, Veszprém and Flensburg. After several big battles, our players took third place in Group B, with 18 points (four defeats, two draws and eight wins) and finished only two points behind the leading duo, who qualified directly for the quarters.

THE STATS

Elverum's matches have a habit of being spectacular. If the Norwegians have the second-worst defence of the group stage, with 449 goals conceded (only Bucharest did worse, with 470), they also scored a lot in this European campaign! With 417 goals in 14 games, they have a better attack than teams like Szeged (412) or Vardar Skopje (379). In fact, they have two players in the Top 10 on the scorers chart, with Eric Johansson (65 goals) and Tobias Grondahl (73).

Despite having played fewer games than most of their opponents (following the cancellation of their game in Zaporozhye, for which they were awarded an administrative 10-0 win), the capital club has a very efficient attack! With 452 units, they racked up the second-best attacking record in the group stage, just behind Aalborg and their 453 goals. Mikkel Hansen figured prominently once again, bagging 75 goals in 13 appearances Finally, in defence, Paris conceded just 396 goals despite playing in such a competitive group.

HEAD TO HEAD

The two teams are facing each other for the fifth time in the EHF Champions League. But this is the first time Les Rouge et Bleu will have played in Elverum. Their first duel (22-25), in September 2019, was played at Hakons Hall in Lillehammer, breaking the attendance record for an indoor sport in Norway, with 12,500 spectators. The following season, the double confrontation of the group phase had to be played at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin. Due to the health situation, Luc Abalo's teammates were not able to host the capital club and had to travel twice to the Parisian arena. For now, the first four confrontations have been won by our team.

THE OTHER MATCHES

Four teams are already in the quarter-finals (Aalborg, Kiel, Kielce and Barcelona). The others must go through the round of 16. In addition to the meeting between Paris and Elverum, Flensburg face Szeged, Porto challenge Montpellier and Vardar face Veszprém. This round (home and away) is played between March 30 and April 7.

TO FOLLOW THE GAME (THROW-OFF AT 18:45):

- Television: Eurosport Player
- Our social networks : via our live-tweet

(Credits : A. Gadoffre/TeamPics/PSG)