Paris avoid the trap in Chartres
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On Sunday afternoon, Paris Saint-Germain Handball were back on the road in the Liqui Moly StarLigue, making the short trip to Chartres. The Parisians were out to continue their insane league run and inch closer to the Holy Grail of a 100% win record over an entire season. One could expect a lot of goals from Les Rouge et Bleu as they looked to do so as, on average over the last six meetings, they have scored 35 goals against Chartres. But beware, the home side, already assured of their top-flight survival, would not be playing with fear of defeat.
It was a tight start to the match! Neither team was able to take the lead and some passing errors were visible on both sides. But our lads managed to find Kamil, who hit an early 3 from 3 (7': 5-5). However, Paris then had a big offensive slump. Chartres, at home, were keen to become the first side this season to defeat Les Rouge et Bleu - and they gave themselves the means to do so by going ahead in the first quarter of an hour (15': 13-10).
At the first time-out called by Raul Gonzalez, the capital club were still behind and still up against a superb Julien Meyer. The Chartres goalkeeper made a good start to the game, denying the Parisians and seeing his team take a lead of up to six goals (19': 17-11). After failing to score from close range, Ferran recovered well on his wing and put the Parisians back to within three goals (26': 20-17). Luc Steins and co. got back on track and came back to within a single goal goal by half-time (30': 21-20).
30' : Paris est bien revenu dans cette fin de premier acte et n'a plus qu'une longueur de retard ! #CHAPSG pic.twitter.com/NTHqNlkrDY
— PSG Handball (@psghand) May 22, 2022
But the Parisians were still struggling to find solutions offensively as the second half began. At the other end of the court, Vincent saved his first penalty after having gone very close on the previous one (38': 27-25). As the final quarter of an hour swung around, Paris were still behind by three goals. But then Kamil scored his tenth of the afternoon and allowed his team to stay in the game (45': 30-28).
With only ten minutes left to play, the Parisians were back on top (49': 32-32) and then took the lead with six minutes left to play! Taking advantage of the opponent's 7-man attack, Paris started piling the strikes into an empty goal and soon went ahead (54': 33-36). The late surge was enough to get Paris Saint-Germain Handball over the line!(40-36). Raul Gonzalez's men continued their flawless run in the championship with a 26th wins from as many matches!
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(Credits: A. Gadoffre/Team Pics/PSG)