Five things on PSG Handball - Ivry

News

After two weeks without an official match (because of the international break), Paris Saint-Germain Handball return to competition win their Round 19 Lidl Starligue clash with neighbours Ivry at the at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin On Saturday.

Rankings
Before this weekend's matches, these two teams are at practically opposite ends of the table. But, although Ivry are flirting with relegation, they are in a favourable position vis-à-vis their direct rivals. Indeed, they currently sit just outside the drop zone in 14th place, two points ahead of Tremblay and three ahead of Créteil and with a game in hand over their close opponents. If Sébastien Quintallet's men win their rescheduled match, they could move as high as 12th place. It is therefore with less pressure that they go to Coubertin, to face league leaders Paris, who are still on track for a perfect season, having won all 16 of their matches so far.

Robin's return
Despite their ranking, USI's roster has plenty of talent - notably capital cub youth academy product Robin Dourte. The 22-year-old pivot has won several titles, both with Les Rouge et Bleu (Lidl StarLigue and Coupe de la Ligue in 2019) and France's youth teams (two World Championship titles). He was also one of the driving forces behind the youth academy team's victory in the National 2 Championship in 2017 (see below). Robin is part of a generation that has experienced a massive conversion into the ranks of professional handball, such as Dylan Nahi and Adama Keita (Paris), Edouard Kempf (Toulouse), Clément Gaudin (Istres), Gauthier Ivah (Massy), Adrien Chaudanson (Pontault-Combault) or Titouan Afanou-Gatine (Chartres).

Key stats
Saturday's match will pit two of our championship's best goalkeepers against each other. Ivry 'keeper Mate Sunjic currently tops the Lidl Starligue saves chart with 159 stops since the beginning of the season (including 18 against Nantes his last time out) and not far behind him we find Vincent Gerard on 136 saves. As a reminder, our two 'keepers, Vincent and Yann Genty, dominate this ranking historically, with respectively 3219 and 3088 career top-flight saves. Offensively, Paris still have the best attacking line in France, with 559 goals scored (34.94 per game), led by Nedim Remili's 74 goals. Linus Persson is Ivry's sharpest shooter with 55 goals.

Head-to-head
This is the 29th time Ivry and Paris Saint-Germain Handball have faced each other in the Lidl StarLigue. The record is largely to the advantage of our team, who have won 22 times for two draws and four losses and are on a run of 14 wins in a row against (the last defeat goes back to April 28, 2102, 32-26). Last October, the game was full of pitfalls and Les Rouge et Bleu had to work hard to build a lead in the last quarter, but in the end they ran out winners by a ten-goal margin (25-35). It was also on this day that Nikola Karabatic injured his knee. Fortunately, Paris could count on their Danish duo, composed of Henrik Toft Hansen (eight goals) and Mikkel Hansen (seven).

To follow the game (kick-off at 19:00):
• Television: NHL TV
• At Stade Pierre de Coubertin: Behind closed doors
• Live tweet: our official page

(Credits: J. Azouze/PSG)