Paris caught at the death

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On Saturday afternoon, Paris Saint-Germain played one of the most important matches of the season! For the fifth time in club history (and the fifth time in six seasons), they were at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne to take part in the EHF Final4. In the first game of the weekend, they had a semi-final against an Aalborg side featuring former Parisian Henrik Mollgaard (in the other game, Barcelona took on Nantes). A difficult opponent, given that the Danes had beaten Bundesliga leaders Flensburg in the previous round and had won at the Veszprém Arena during the group stage. But Les Rouge et Bleu were also coming into the game with some strong form, having knocked out defending champions Kiel in the quarter-finals.

The game started with three penalties: one was saved by Yann Genty while the others were converted by Mikkel Hansen (2': 1-0; 5': 2-0). The Parisian defence made a very good start and kept a clean sheet fo the first nine minutes. The attack took full advantage to score on the counter! Thus, Dylan Nahi took Paris's lead to +3 (8': 3-0) and the gap could have been even bigger had it not been for some unforced errors that allowed the Danes to stay in the game (12': 4-2). Aarlborg had several chances to get back to within a goal, but Yann, who won most of his duels with the opposing offensive line, had the answers (14': 4-2).

While our goalkeeper continued to shine, the rest of the team followed suit, with Nedim Remili firing home at the far post while Luc Steins cooked ups wicked spin-shot (18': 8-4). Aalborg then went to a formation with seven attackers, and the change in tactics yielded more shooting opportunities. Aarlborg came back into the game (24': 11-9), but once again, they were pushed back by Kamil Syprzak (28': 14-11).

At the break, Paris were still in front but the match was still delicately poised. They would need to be solid once again in the second half to book their place in the final.

Raul Gonzalez's men started the second act with a double from Elohim Prandi and two saves from Vincent Gerard (33': 17-14). They were efficient in all areas and took a promising when Nedim Remili hit on the counter (36': 19-14). Our two players in the backline were in fine form and posed many problems for the Danish defence (37': 20-15). It took a few feats from the opposing goalkeeper Simon Gade to prevent the capital club from taking off a little more, and these few failures once again got Aalborg moving in the right direction (41': 22-20).

The Danes took advantage of their numerical superiority and completely revived the game (44': 23-22). In this moment of turbulence, Les Rouge et Bleu could count on Vincent Gérard, who saved a penalty (47': 24-22). But it was still not enough... Aalborg came back to level terms (48': 24-24) and took the lead for the first time in the match (50': 24-25). Raul then called a time-out to let the storm pass. At the resumption, it was the Parisians' turn to attack with seven players and to level things up (52': 28-28). The final minutes were approaching fast, and the end of the game was extremely tense (55': 29-29).

But things turned sour for Paris, who feel two goals behind (57': 29-31). Despite their best efforts, Paris Saint-Germain Handball could not recover and were behind when the final; buzzer sounded. They will play the in third-place play-off on Sunday.

(Credits: TeamPics/PSG)