On Thursday night, Paris Saint-Germain Handball return to European action! In EHF Champions League Matchday 12 action, they play host to Flensburg in a potentially decisive match at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin!
THE TABLE
While Les Rouge et Bleu can still hope to finish in the top two places in Group B (directly qualifying for the quarterfinals), they first of all need to secure their ticket for the next round. If they win against Flensburg, they would be four points ahead of Porto (while there are only four points left for the Portuguese, six for Paris) and have a better goal difference. Victory over the Germans would also put them level on points with Barcelona, who are currently second but have played one more match than the capital club.
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On the other hand, Flensburg are just a single point clear of the drop zone. With six defeats (four wins, one draw) since the start of their European campaign, the Flensburgers need to clock wins to secure their place in the round of 16. And this is no pipe dream; they have shown that they are capable of achieving very good results, having clinched a notable win at home to Veszprèm in early December (30-27).
A LOOK BACK AT THE FIRST MATCH
Back on Matchday 3, Flensburg and Paris faced off in the Flens Arena. The duel lived up to its promise and neither of the two sides could get the better of the other (27-27). Hampus Wanne (the German side's top scorer with 49 goals) and Mikkel Hansen (the most prolific Parisian player with 58 goals) both delivered stellar performances, finishing the match with 7 from 10 and 6 from 9 respectively.
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HEAD TO HEAD
The German team has been one of the most frequent opponents of Les Rouge et Bleus on the European stage: this will be the 16th time that the two teams face each other in the Champions League. For the moment, the capital club dominate the fixture with nine wins, five defeats and a draw. Their first meetings date back to 2005-2006. At that time, Flensburg won in Germany (37-24) before the Parisians, well led by the eight goals of Ibrahim Diaw, took their revenge in the return leg in Paris (33-31). Finally, among the outstanding results, there was a buzzer-beating win for our lads in 2017, Nedim Remili converting a kung-fu from Uwe Gensheimer to seal the deal (33-34).
DATE SET
Next week, Raul Gonzalez's men will get their European fixture list back on schedule. They were supposed to face Zaporozhye in their Matchday 11 clash on 17 February, but the match had to be postponed due to the political situation that currently prevails in Ukraine. The match will now take place on Tuesday, 1 March, on neutral ground in Presov, Slovakia. Two days later, Paris Saint-Germain Handball will travel to Romania to face Dinamo Bucharest.
On connaît la date du report de #ZAPPSG 👇
— PSG Handball (@psghand) February 22, 2022
TO FOLLOW THE GAME (THROW-OFF AT 20:45):
- From the stands of Coubertin: by getting your tickets on our official website
- Television: Eurosport 2 and La Chaine L'Equipe
- Our social networks: via our live-tweet
(Credits: A. Gadoffre/TeamPics/PSG)