Paris punch quarters ticket

News

The context:
After a month and a half off, Paris Saint-Germain Handball were back in the the thick of it on Friday evening. The Lidl StarLigue leaders (13 wins from 13 games) were travelling to Corsica for their Coupe de France round of 16 with Gazélec Ajaccio (first in their group in National 1) - a re-make of their clash two years ago at this same stage of the competition (Paris won 42-17).

The match:
Les Rouge et Bleu quickly took the lead (6': 3-6). Mikkel Hansen, who was just as adept at from the seven- or nine-metre lines (10': 5-9), and Luc Abalo, who faked a shot and then went on to chase the ball around the post, had already doubled the lead as the first quarter of an hour ticked past (14': 6-12). Our players were also solid in defence and capitalised by hitting on the counter to blow the lead out to +10 (20': 6-16). In the last ten minutes of the first half, Rodrigo Corrales - excellent against the Corsican attack - and his teammates further increased their advantage (25': 8-20). With Dylan Nahi, Kim Ekdahl du Rietz and Edouard Kempf leading the way, Paris continued to get the better of the home side and headed into the break with confidence.

In the second half, our team resumed their forward march (36': 14-28), but the home side did start to have more of a say in the match. The N1 formation, galvanised by their supporters, gained momentum and chipped away at their deficit (40': 16-29). But the capital club resisted Ajaccio's pressure and managed to hold on to their lead. Our two youth academy stars (who also play in the N1) Sadou Ntanzi and Gauthier Ivah came off the bench to great effect, with our young playmaker alternating between goals and assists (45': 18-32) while his class-mate made several parries from close range (54': 24-37). In the dying moments, the result was beyond doubt, but the whole of U Palatinu continued to cheer on all those involved in the match as Les Rouge et Bleu ran out comfortable winners (25-39).

Parisian of the Match: Luc Abalo
Luc Abalo was able to show off his great panoply of shots. Unplayable at the beginning of the game, the French international continued to fire - often in spectacular fashion! The French international's goal-scoring, feinting and successful one-on-one duels were just some of the highlights, as was his shot that flew just over the keeper. A very fine performance from Lucio before he made way for the club's young stars.

The word: Quarters
Thanks to this victory, Paris Saint-Germain Handball qualified for the Coupe de France quarter-finals, to be played on the weekend of 7 and 8 March.

Coming up:
After the Coupe de France, Les Rouge et Bleu will return to the Lidl StarLigue. Next Thursday, they will travel to Toulouse for their round 14 clash before a third away game in a week - the Velux EHF Champions League clash with Celje in Slovenia.

(Credits: J. Azouze/PSG)