Paris prevail with second-half blitz

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On Sunday afternoon, Paris Saint-Germain Handball closed out Liqui Moly StarLigue Round 19 out with their clash away to Chambéry. The objective? To continue their perfect start to the season (18 victories from as many games before throw-off) and confirm their status as leaders (seven points ahead of their nearest rivals). But the task did not look easy in a venue where it is never easy to win. This was the third meeting of the season between the two teams: our team won the first round in the league (36-29), but lost out in the second clash, in the second in the Final4 of the League Cup (28-29). Round 3 was always going to be exciting!

In an electric atmosphere at Le Phare, it was the home team that got off to the better start (3': 2-0). For several long minutes, our attack was hampered by a great home defence and it took a magnificent close-range save from Yann Genty to prevent CSH from making the break (6': 1-3). Despite the various feats of our last bastion, the Parisians had great difficulty in finding the net and had to chase the game (12': 5-2). At the end of the first quarter of an hour, they were four points behind (16': 6-2).

Raul Gonzalez then called a time-out to get his players back on track and switch to a seven-man attack. Still, they were unable to make up the deficit because of a number of errors in attack (19': 7-3). But little by little, Paris got their act together. After being five points behind (21': 9-5), our team grew more solid in defence and were almost unbeatable in attack. They got back in the running in the space of a few moments (24': 9-7) and equalised just before the break thanks to Luka Karabatic (29': 12-12). At half-time, they were again behind, but were right back in the game.

The second half didn't start better than the first for Paris, faced an excellent Nikola Portner, who won several duels with our offensive line (33': 16-13). His Parisian counterpart Vincent Gérard had some answers and saved a penalty - a success that inspired his teammates. Benoît Kounkoud quickly levelled it up (39': 17-17) and then the Parisians took the lead for the first time thanks to Nikola Karabatic (41': 19-20). The final minutes were approaching fast and the balance of power had completely changed (47': 22-25).

However, given the valiant performance from Chambéry, the game was not yet won (49': 24-25). But, well led by a huge end of the game from Yann (54': 24-28) - and the power of Mikkel Hansen - Les Rouge et Bleu were back in a very favourable position (56': 25-30). Paris Saint-Germain Handball finished the match with utter seriousness - capping a second half where they outscored Chambéry 20-13 - and clinched a 19th win from as many games.

(Credits: J. Azouze/PSG)