Paris ride rollercoaster to victory!

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On Wednesday afternoon, Paris Saint-Germain Handball made their last league trip of the season for their Lidl StarLigue Round 29 fixture. It was an opportunity to be officially crowned French Champions - all they needed was a single against Cesson-Rennes. But Les Irreductibles, who had yet to secure survival and who never give an inch at the Glaz Arena, were not to be taken lightly.

The Brittany side got off to the better start (5': 4-2), and for several minutes, Les Rouge et Bleu were stymied by a strong home defence and were forced to chase the game (8': 6-4). Fortunately, the Cesson backline were at times forced to foul and Mikky Hansen reduced the gap from the penalty line (9': 6-5). Then, on a quick counter, our side levelled through Mathieu Grébille (10': 6-6).

Despite this fight-back, the Parisians fell behind again (12': 8-6) and even when they found shooting solutions, opposing goalkeeper Joze Baznik (third on the saves chart), thwarted their efforts. But Yann Genty was also in good form and denied his former team several chances to go three goals up (15': 8-6). After six minutes without a Parisian goal, Kamil Syprzak made the breakthrough and brought the capital club back to within one goal (16': 8-7). Paris looked to be back on track! After a great piece of defending from Nedim Remili and a counter-attack by Mikky, Raul Gonzalez's men equalised once again (17': 8-8).

They then took the lead for the first time in the match, thanks to Dainis Kristopans (18': 8-9). But once again, Paris failed to break clear (22': 11-11) as the two teams began to duke it out (26': 13-13). Les Rouge et Bleu finally made the breakthrough in the last moments of the first half, with goals from Nikola Karabatic and Mathieu (28': 13-15). The Parisian machine was starting to roll and continued to increase the lead with two more quick counter-attacks (29': 13-17) that sent them into the break on a positive dynamic!

The second half started with the same rhythm (32': 13-19), but Paris soon stepped on the gas and proved unplayable at both ends of the court, blowing the lead out to seven goals (36': 14-21). While Yann, well helped by the defensive commitment of his teammates, continued his very good performance in goal, Mathieu maintained his strong first-half form, conjuring a superb spin-shot that eked its way to the inside of the side netting.

Our players had the match well in hand, with Mathieu striking again (44': 19-26) before Elohim Prandi produced a glorious schwenker (47': 21-28). It was with an even bigger lead that they entered the final ten minutes (50': 21-29). After having played well for 25 minutes, Cesson-Rennes had to fight their way back into the game, but Yann had the answers to pour cold water on their ambitions (53': 23-30). Our goalkeeper the produced a magnificent double save from close range (54': 24-31).

There wasn't much time left, and the title was drawing inexorably closer (57': 25-32). A few moments later, the final buzzer sounded (60': 28-34) and Paris Saint-Germain Handball were crowned French Champions for the eighth time in the club's history - and the seventh in a row! They will celebrate this title with their fans on Friday evening at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin, when they host Nîmes in the final day of the Lidl StarLigue season.

(Credits: TeamPics/PSG)