Paris fall in fast-paced encounter

Match reports

Paris Saint-Germain Handball played their second warm-up match (the fourth in total, with the first two victories in Japan) in Germany on Saturday afternoon,24 hours after their victory over Wetzlar. This time, Les Rouge et Bleu faced the formidable Gummersbach side, coached by former Parisian winger Gudjon Sigurdsson, at the Schwalbe Arena.

Despite the lack of recovery time after their last match, Raul Gonzalez's men got off to an excellent start. Thanks to Jannick Green's saves and Kamil Syprzak's efficiency, our players even went ahead. But of course the game was far from over, and the home side, spurred on by a sold-out arena, also responded. Against this backdrop, we saw an extremely even first half, but one in which the Germans had a slight advantage. Their very aggressive defence (sometimes too aggressive for the rules) caused problems for our forward line. However, after two winning counter-attacks just before the break, the capital club were still in the game (30': 18-16).

The restart followed the same pattern we had seen at the end of the first half, with a Parisian team that was never far from getting back into the game - without ever managing to do so. There were a number of bright spots: Andreas Palicka pulled off several fine saves and the attack managed to find solutions against the German rearguard. Unfortunately, it still wasn't enough to pull a goal back. As the final minutes approached, Les Rouge et Bleu pressed the accelerator a little more and managed to equalise after a fine rebounded shot from Elohim Prandi. But this burst of energy, the day after an already fast-paced encounter, was to prove fatal for the Parisians. Gummersbach made the difference in the dying moments and went on to win (60': 39-37). The training camp in Germany is over for Paris Saint-Germain Handball, who will be back in training next week, before another warm-up match at Ivry on Friday.

REACTIONS FROM RAUL GONZALEZ, KAMIL SYPRZAK AND ADAMA KEITA:

(Credits: J. Azouze/PSG)