Les Rouge et Bleus' perfect start comes to an end

Comptes-rendus

Paris Saint-Germain Handball suffered their first league defeat of the season away to Nantes on Sunday (34-31). We take a look back at this Liqui Moly StarLigue Matchday 14 clash.

As 2024 draws to a close, Les Rouge et Bleu were already gearing up for what Raul Gonzalez called a "small final"’ after their 32-36 Coupe de France win over Saran on Wednesday evening. In the aptly named Neodif XXL, the capital club took on nearest chasers and eternal rivals Nantes. A crucial match against a side unbeaten at home this season, and one that would be overjoyed at the prospect of taking the Liqui Moly StarLigue leadership from the Parisians. Heading into the match with a perfect domestic record this season, Les Rouge et Bleu had a clear objective: to maintain their perfect start to the season and ensure they could head into the international break on top.

In a sold-out Halle XXL, the two sides began the match at a frenetic pace. Wallem and Yahia responded well to Nantes‘ onslaughts and got Les Rouge et Bleu off to a flying start (2’: 2-2). The capital club did, however, have some problems with home keeper Ivan Pesic, who got off to a solid start. In attack, the hosts were clinical and were the first to create a gap (6': 5-3). Nantes were fairly aggressive at the start of the match, offering the capital club two penalties. This was a godsend for Kamil Syprzak and Ferran Solé, who capitalised to keep Paris in touch with The H (9': 7-5). Despite some good attacking moves, Paris continued to come up against Nantes' rock-solid defence, Pesic pulling off a fourth save from Jacob Holm (12': 9-5). However, the capital club continued to take advantage of the numerous fouls committed by Grégory Cojean's men, with Kamil registering two more goals from the penalty line (15': 11-7).

Our Polish pivot grew in strength as the minutes went by and continued his perfect record with a fourth goal from as many attempts (17': 12-9). More solid defensively, the capital club came back to within two points of Nantes and put the pressure on the home side (20': 13-11). The goals kept coming in a first half that lived up to its promise. Léo Plantin opened his account and Andreas made his first save of the evening. Paris stepped up the pressure, and the hosts decided to call their first time-out (26': 18-15). The tension mounted in the final minutes, and Jannick made a last-gasp save to send Paris into the locker room just three points behind (30': 20-17).

Right from the restart, Ferran Solé took advantage of a Luc Steins recovery to reduce the lead (32': 20-18). Nantes soon hit back, but Andreas Palicka made two saves in quick succession to stop them pulling clear (35': 22-20). Spurred on by their fans, The H stepped up a gear and went to +4 (40': 25-21). Raul Gonzalez reacted immediately, calling a time out to make tactical adjustments. Les Rouge et Bleu were trailing, but kept their hopes alive as the final quarter-hour approached (43': 26-23). A man up Paris attacked with seven men and got back to within two points of the hosts (45': 27-25).

The Parisians were far from giving up and managed to dig deep and level the score, forcing Gregory Cojean to call a time-out (47': 27-27). Nantes then took advantage of several errors by our players to regain control in the final ten minutes (53': 30-27). Despite battling fiercely from start to finish, Paris fell to a fine Nantes side in their first defeat of season (60': 34-31). With this loss, the capital club relinquished the league lead to their opponents on the night - but only on goal difference! Raul Gonzalez's men will finish 2024 in front of their home fans next Friday against Saint-Raphaël.

Reactions from Raul Gonzalez, Mathieu Grébille and Ruben Marchan:

(Credits: L. Valroff/PSG)