Epic draw!

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Après une très belle partie, Paris et le @hbcnantes se quittent dos à dos ! #NANPSG

A post shared by Paris Saint-Germain Handball (@psghandofficiel) on Feb 27, 2020 at 1:29pm PST

The context:
This Lidl Star League Round 17 clash was played on Thursday night at The H's arena. League leaders (with 16 wins), Paris Saint-Germain Handball could, in the event of a positive result, claim their 17th straight league win this season, but could also relegate their closest challengers to eight points. Nantes, meanwhile, had a chance to climb to within four points of the summit.

The match:
It was a tricky start for the capital club... challenged by the excellent Cyril Dumoulin in the Nantes goal, they also failed to stop Nantes' offensives (3': 4-0). Raul Gonzalez's men were left with a heavy handicap from the outset, which they tried to overcome throughout the first half (7': 6-3). Sander Sagosen and Gudjon Sigurdsson were on target on several occasions, but the home side, spurred on by their supporters, were able to stay in front at each turn (22': 15-11). However, Rordrigo Corrales' fine saves and Nikola Karabatic's late strike took the visitors close to level in the dying moments (30': 16-15).

When they came back from the changing rooms, the lessons of the first 30 minutes seemed to be well recorded. Nikola Karabatic fired Paris back to level terms (32': 16-16), while Viran Morros took advantage of a counter-attack to give Les Rouge et Bleu the lead for the first time in the game (35': 17-18). A long mano à mano began, during which neither side could really manage to break away (44': 24-23). Emil Nielsen for Nantes and Rodrigo for Paris were both on the scoresheet and both registered some fine saves, creating a great deal of suspense in the run-up to the final minutes (50': 26-25) and beyond into the final seconds (59': 29-29). In spite of a point-blank attempt for The H, stopped by our Spanish goalkeeper, and a last Parisian offensive, which came to nothing, there was no further scoring and the match ended honours even (29-29).

The Parisian of the match: Rodrigo Corrales
Rodrigo Corrales had a great game and kept his team afloat when Les Rouge et Bleus' rear-guard was dire straits. Our last line of defence had a 38% success rate against the opposing forwards, repelling 13 of their attempts. Among them, Rodri certainly saved the match point, three seconds from time in a one-on-one with French international Nicolas Tournat.

The word: Undefeated
Still unbeaten in the Lidl StarLeague after 17 games, the capital club's winning streak (16 consecutive wins) came to a halt at The H Arena. However, they still hold a six-point lead over Nantes, who remain second, in front of Nimes.

Coming up:
Paris Saint-Germain Handball will end the group phase of the Velux EHF Champions League 2019-20 on Sunday. Currently second in Group A, they will maintain their position if they beat Zagreb at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin.

(Credits: J. Azouze/PSG)