On Saturday evening, Paris Saint-Germain Handball got off to a great start in the Velux EHF Champions League by winning in Zagreb (29-37). Check out the rest of the Group A results.
Szeged - Barcelona: 31-28
This was certainly one of the bigger clashes of Matchday 1. Two favourites for the Final4, Szeged and Barcelona, were facing each other in Hungary. The home side had a great first half and were already seven goals ahead at the break (30': 18-11). The Catalan attack really struggled a fine local defence and converted only 47% of their chances, which was not enough to see Ludovic Fabregas and co. across the line despite a better performance in the second half (31-28).
Celje - Flensburg: 24-25
Celje, who played host to Flensburg on Sunday afternoon, were in the running for a result right up until the final moments of a dogged 60-minute battle. Germany's Johannes Golla hit six goals to just outdo Croatia's Josip Sarac, who bagged five. In the final minutes, Dvorana Zlatorog maintained the suspense (57' : 23-24) but in the end, Norwegian centre-half Goeran Soegaard Johannessen sealed the deal by clinching victory for the German side at the death (24-25).
⏹Ende
— SG Fle-Ha (@SGFleHa) September 15, 2019
Das wars aus Celje! Zwei ganz wichtige Punkte für unsere Jungs gegen @RKCPL
. Ein echter Krimi und ein hochintensives Spiel.
Umstellung Abwehr, Gotte wieder ins Spiel gefunden. Körner gelassen, Buric wichitge Paraden.
_______#RKPSGF 24:25#MoinMoinEurope pic.twitter.com/SLwTInWneF
Elverum - Aalborg: 24-34
Finally, the Norwegians from Elverum hosted Aalborg to round out the Matchday 1 action. Thanks in particular to an 8 from 10 from Mads Christiansen and a 7 from 9 from Sebastian Barthold, the Danes got their continental campaign off to the perfect start. Indeed, over the entire match, they fell behind just twice and even then, it was only for a total of two minutes (13': 8-7 ; 15': 9-8). The visitors proved extremely effective in attack, scoring with 72% of their attempts, compared to only 51% for the locals. With a goal difference of +10, Aalborg took control of the group.
Matchday 2 fixtures:
- Paris - Szeged: Sunday, 22 September, 19:00 CET (beIN SPORTS 3)
- Flensburg - Elverum: Wednesday, 18 September, 19:00 CET
- Barcelona - Celje: Saturday, 21 September, 20:00 CET
- Aalborg - Zagreb: Sunday, 22 September, 16:50 CET
(Credits: TeamPics/PSG)