All you need to know about Saint-Raphaël - PSG Handball

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On Saturday evening, the Parisians travel to Saint-Raphaël for their Liqui Moly StarLigue Round 29 clash. To find out what's at stake in this match, read on.

THE TABLE

Champions for almost a month now, Nikola Karabatic and his teammates have two objectives in this end of season. The first? To win the Coupe de France against Nantes next Saturday. The second? To become the first French team to achieve the grand slam (100% wins across the whole league campaign) in the championship. To achieve this, they still have two matches to win.

For Saint-Raphaël, the situation is a little different... The team from the south of France have wholly different objectives as the end of the league season looms. They currently sit in eighth place in the standings and, while they are not currently qualified for a European place, mathematically it remains possible; they are in a three-way battle with Toulouse and Nîmes. It is entirely likely that they will want to give themselves the best possible chance of participating in Europe next season and this may require a victory against Paris.

A LOOK BACK AT THE FIRST MATCH

It was back in Round 10 that Les Rouge et Bleu played host to their counterparts from Saint-Raphaël, and it must be said that the match went almost entirely to the advantage of our players (42-31). But playing at home, and with the end-of-season context in full effect, Saint-Raphaël will want to show a completely different face and the scoreline will likely be smaller.

HEAD TO HEAD

Paris enjoy the historical head-to-head advantage over Saint-Raphaël, with 29 wins and eight losses. The last three meetings between the two teams have also all been won by the players from the capital. The last Parisian defeat in Saint-Raphaël was on 12 May 2019. After 22 league games (21 wins and one draw), our players lost their Round 23 trip away game, but it proved to be the only blight on an otherwise perfect season (33-31).

SAINT-RAPHAËL'S STRENGTHS

Saint-Raphaël have some very serious weapons in their bid to deny Paris a perfect season once again, but the most important among them is Raphaël Caucheteux. The top scorer in Liqui Moly StarLigue history (2210 goals), the hometown hero is also third on the scoring chart this season, with 184 goals (from 239 shots). It was he who helped his team to victory the last time they beat Paris, scoring no fewer than14 times! Watch out also for Xavier Barrachet! The former Parisian (2013-2017) shone in the first meeting this season top-scoring for Saint-Raphaël with six goals. Note that he will end his career at the end of the season.

TO FOLLOW THE GAME (THROW-OFF AT 20:00):

  • Television: LNH TV
  • Our social networks: Via our live-tweet

(Credits: A. Gadoffre/Team Pics/PSG)