Mission accomplished in Bucharest

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Paris Saint-Germain handball turned in a fine performance away to Dinamo Bucharest (33-40) on Thursday on Matchday 10 in EHF Champions League Group A.

As has often been the case in recent weeks, Les Rouge et Bleu were playing away from home, and once again it was a huge clash! Raul Gonzalez's men travelled to Romania to take on Dinamo Bucharest at their Polyvalent Hall. With a two-point lead over their direct rivals heading into the match, the capital club were not assuming that they would win, despite having done so in the first leg a month ago (35-32).

Unsurprisingly, the game got off to a tight start. Paris took the lead, but without breaking clear (5': 3-4). This scenario continued for several minutes (9': 7-7). Despite Yahia Omar's attacking prowess, the two sides were still unable to separate themselves as the quarter-hour mark approached (13': 9-9). It took a magnificent chabala from Jacob Holm to finally see one of the two teams go two goals clear (14': 9-11).

The Parisian machine seemed to be up and running. More effective in defence, Les Rouge et Bleu did not lose any of their superb attacking spirit and saw their lead increase to +4 (16': 9-13). Very serious in all areas, our side endeavoured to increase their advantage and, even when they were a man down, they managed to pull further clear with a lightning counter-attack from David (24': 12-19). At the break, Paris led by seven goals at an impressivley efficient clip (30': 14-21).

Our players came back from the break with the same good intentions and continued to add to their lead (33': 14-23). One of the key players for Paris was the extremely efficient Jannick Green, who even took the liberty of saving a penalty (37': 16-25). Unsurprisingly, the capital club moved to +10 after another counter-attack (38': 16-26). Although the home side lifted their heads and made up some of the lost ground, our team remained significantly out in front as the arena began to hot up (45': 23-29).

The individual marking on Luc and Yahia seemed to pay off for the Romanians, who conceded fewer goals and scored more of their own (48': 25-30). The score was still clearly in favour of the capital club, but the atmosphere gave the impression that a turnaround was possible (52': 28-34). Five minutes from time, Jannick and Mathieu's heroics al but sealed the outcome (55': 28-35) and, moments later, Paris Saint-Germain handball ran out winners (60': 33-40). Thanks to a perfectly controlled game, they took provisional second place in Group A from Sporting (who played Berlin later in the evening), and locked down a place in the quarter-finals.

Reactions from Raul Gonzalez, Kamil Syprzak and Jannick Green:

(Credits: L.Valroff/PSG)