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On Wednesday afternoon, Paris Saint-Germain Handball played the second leg of their EHF Champions League quarter-final against Kiel. Beaten in the first leg in Germany (31-29), Paris had three scenarios that would see them qualify for fifth Final4 in six years: win by more than three points, win by two points while conceding fewer than 29 goals; or getting the same result as last week and then winning the ensuing penalty shootout. The mission was not easy against the new team of former Parisian Sander Sagosen (absent in the first leg due to a virus). But for the occasion, our players could count on the support of the 800 spectators allowed to attend the match at Coubertin.

In a frenetic start to the game (2': 2-2), it took Paris only a few moments to take an aggregate lead as Dylan Nahi concluded a counterattack (4': 4-2). Obviously, it was still too early to claim victory, and in any case the Germans weren't about to make things easy (6': 4-3). But overall, Les Rouge et Bleu succeeded in getting off to the better start, bringing the intensity and carving out a three-goal lead thanks to the power of Elohim Prandi (9': 7-4). From the beginning, the fight was a tough one and the fouls - like Sander's to stop Dylan from breaking once again - piled up.

Raul Gonzalez's men were on the front foot and still had the advantage over two legs (14': 9-7). Solid in defense, they could have had a much bigger lead had Kiel 'keeper Niklas Landin, as well as technical errors, not held them back (17': 9-7). Fortunately, the visitors also fell prey to errors as well as an omnipresent Luka Karabatic hindering their attacks. Dainis Kristopans took full advantage, deftly feinting and firing put his side two goals clear once more (20': 10-8). The gap stayed steady and our team remained on track to qualify on the away goals rule (23': 12-10).

The only problem was that our former player, Sander, got better as the game went on and continued to score (28': 15-14). At the break, the capital club had made it half-way, but were one goal down on aggregate.

In great form in the first half, Man of the Match Elohim kept it up after the break, quickly finding Landin's top corner (32': 19-17). Once again, Les Rouge et Bleu had to play out of their skins in order to get past the European Champions (37': 21-20) and the fans were treated to a superb display of end-to-end action that saw the ticket for the Final4 change hands time and time again (38': 22-20). An omnipresent Elo' maintained the two-goal lead by flying through the air to score with a superb kung-fu (41': 23-21), but at the approach of the last quarter of an hour, the outcome of this double confrontation was still undecided.

The Parisians were up for the challenge and, even a man down, they managed to thwart the Zebras' attacks. And then Nedim Remili scores powerfully to take Les Rouge et Bleu to +3 (46': 26-23), but they continued to accelerate and Dylan cooked up one of the goals of the season, resisting a foul and scoring with a deft lob - with his back to goal (48': 28-24)! The final minutes arrived and the capital club looked to have killed the match - and the tie - off (50': 29-24). After a pastis from Yann Genty and another goal from Elohim, Paris saw their lead climb to six units (51': 31-25).

The minutes passed and our team maintained their lead. Nedim resisted a foul from Sander (who copped consecutive red cards and was sent back to the locker room) and found the gap to score once again (54': 32-26). The tension continued to build and the referees had a lot of work to do. Landin stymied several of our attacks and kept his side in the match (57': 32-28), but Yann replied in kind and, a few moments later, the final buzzer sounded and Paris Saint-Germain Handball had toppled Kiel to qualify for the EHF Champions League Final4 of the (34-28)!

(Credits: TeamPics/PSG)