Five out of five

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On Sunday afternoon, Paris Saint-Germain Handball travelled to the north of Denmark for their Velux EHF Champions League Round 5 clash with Skjern - a tough encounter in which Les Rouge et Bleu prevailed 24-26 to extend their perfect start to the European season.

Despite the electric atmosphere in the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning, the two sides took a while to get into the mood. In the first ten minutes, only Benoît Kounkoud for Paris (4': 0-1) and Thomas Mogensen for the Danes (7': 1-1) found the back of the net. However, little by little, Paris broke free, with Uwe Gensheimer hitting a quick-fire triple to put his side two goal to the good (12': 2-4). Les Rouge et Bleu were getting set to take control of the match (16': 4-7), but the home side needed just a few minutes to bridge the gap as 'keeper Emil Nielsen upped the ante with some strong saves (21': 8-8). Skjern took the lead with just minutes left in the first half (24': 10-9), but Mikkel Hansen and Luka Stepancic turned it around to carve out a two-goal lead after a hard-fought opening act (10-12).

Paris Saint-Germain Handball looked n a strong position early in the second half as Rodrigo Corrales saved a penalty and Sander Sagosen struck once again (34': 11-14), but the Danes showed plenty of character to level it up once more (38': 15-15). Despite some fine play and some strong solutions, most of Paris' shots were stymied by Nielsen, who prevented Les Rouge et Bleu from making the break (41': 17-15). So Raul Gonzalez opted for a new attacking strategy, playing seven forwards, and the goals came, notably through Mikkel Hansen (50': 18-19). The capital club had a one-point lead going into the final minutes (55': 21-22), and with red cards for Anders Eggert and Sander ratcheting up the tension, Benoît Kounkoud struck a final blow to clinch a hard-fought win (24-26).

 

After going right down to the wire, Paris Saint-Germain Handball snatched the win against an excellent Skjern team, the Les Rouge et Bleu maintaining their perfect start to the Velux EHF Champions League campaign!

The Parisian scorers:
Mikkel Hansen (7 goals), Uwe Gensheimer (5), Benoît Kounkoud (4), Sander Sagosen, Nedim Remili (3), Luka Stepancic (2), Luka Karabatic, Nikola Karabatic (1).

The Parisian 'keeper:
Rodrigo Corales: 12 from 36 (33%)

(Credits: TeamPics/PSG)