Paris prevail in high-octane derby

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Two weeks after their last official match, Paris Saint-Germain Handball returned to the Lidl StarLigue on Saturday night for their Round 19 fixture. Atop the table with 16 wins from as any outings, their objective was to continue their perfect record against one of the teams flirting with the drop zone: Ivry. In the first leg, despite a large victory (25-35), our team had to fight for 50 minutes before running away with it, so victory in this derby was far from a foregone conclusion.

As was the case in October, Les Rouge et Bleu were upon against Ivry's excellent goalkeeper Mate Sunjic, who won most of his early duels with our offensive line (4': 1-1). The defences clearly the upper hand over the attacks and neither of the two sides could seem to break away (7': 3-3). For long stretches the sides cancelled each other out with a strong physical approach (12': 5-5) and even when the capital club had a chance to make the break, they were stymied by Sunjic, who kept Ivry within range of the visitors (14': 6-5).

Raul Gonzalez's men even found themselves chasing the game for a while after a goal from USI's top scorer Linus Persson (17': 7-8) and a counter-attack by Léo Martinez (19': 7-9). Despite Mathieu Grébille best efforts, Paris struggled to turn things around (24': 9-12); even when they started to find a way past Sunjic, Ivry's forwards also hit their straps and managed to maintain their lead (27': 11-14).

Fortunately, Mathieu was in fine form for Paris and kept his team in the game (29': 14-16), but at the break, Les Rouge et Bleu were still trailing.

The Parisians started the second half with better intentions and quickly levelled it up thanks to Benoît Kounkoud and a double from Mikkel Hansen (34': 17-17). Things then reverted to the scenario at the beginning of the game as the two teams went blow for blow (37': 19-19). 'Keepers Vincent Gérard and Sunjic also had something of a battle at opposite Neds of the court, trying to outdo each other with some superb saves (40': 19-19). However, a little later, our players stepped the gas and took the lead once again!

This return to the lead was good for the whole team and soon it seems that Paris had the match firmly under control! The visitors' defence struggled to stop our attack and were often obliged to commit fouls, leaving them under-manned as Mikky did his thing from the penalty line (43': 22-20). That was enough for the Danish international to really get his eye in and he scored from every one of his subsequent shots (48': 24-22) as Les Rouge et Bleu looked to kill the match off with counters from Mathieu (his 500th Lidl Starligue goal) and Nedim Remili (51': 26-22).

With less than ten minutes left, Paris Saint-Germain Handball made the game easier for themselves (53': 28-23). A few moments later, they put an end to the suspense, well led by the efficiency of Kamil Syprzak and Nedim (57': 31-24). Paris thus maintained their 100% winning record with a 17th victory of the campaign, confirming their cushion atop the standings in the process. Next week, they will hit the road for trips to Chambéry (Tuesday) and then Toulouse (Friday).

(Credits: TeamPics/PSG)