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On Sunday afternoon, Paris Saint-Germain Handball closed out Liqui Moly StarLigue Round 23 action with a stiff test in Cesson-Rennes. Indeed, the Bretons were undefeated in their Glaz Arena when they hosted the capital club who, league leaders with 22 wins from as many matches, had the opportunity to become the first team in the French handball elite to start a season with 23 consecutive wins.
The first minutes were delicate for Les Rouge et Bleu, who struggled to find the net (4': 2-0). Overall, the defences took precedence over the attacks and few goals were scored (9': 3-2). The two goalkeepers, Joze Baznik for the home side and Vincent Gérard for the Parisians, were largely responsible for this shut-down, each winning a number of duels to prevent his opponent from taking the lead (11': 3-3). Driven on by their fans, the CRMHB nevertheless managed to make the break (15': 6-4).
By the quarter-hour mark, however, Raul Gonzalez's men had found their range and, thanks to Dainis Kristopans' left arm, took the lead (21': 6-7). Faced with our excellent backline, the Cesson attack failed to score for nearly 10 minutes! The Parisians were now firing on all cylinders and went to +4 (23': 6-10). At the break, they were still ahead, but the outcome remained undecided.
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After half-time, Kamil Syprzak continued to run the opposing defence ragged and scored seemingly at will (35': 13-17). Les Rouge et Bleu were all business and scored on almost all their attacks. Even when their efforts failed, Cesson's attacks did too and the home side couldn't struggled to bridge the gap (41': 16-20). However, as the end of the game approached, the game was still far from being won (46': 19-21).
But, thanks to the liveliness of Sadou Ntanzi, any doubts didn't have long to settle in (47': 19-24). The last moments of the match were approaching fast and our players were in a comfortable position (52': 20-26). As was the case at the beginning of the match, Vincent shut up shop and dashed the Bretons' last hopes of a result (54': 21-27), even saving a penalty from Robin Molinié (56': 22-27).
Paris Saint-Germain Handball won, putting an end to Cesson-Rennes' unbeaten home record while becoming the first Liqui Moly StarLigue team to start a season with 23 wins (27 counting the end of last season)!
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(Credits: J. Azouze/PSG)