Paris roll on against Zagreb

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On Thursday evening, Paris Saint-Germain Handball had their EHF Champions League Matchday 4 clash with Zagreb at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin on the programme, with the objective of maintaining second place in Group A. But, as Yoann Gibelin reminded us before the match, no European match is easy to negotiate.

Despite some setbacks, Les Rouge et Bleu got off to a good start. They could notably rely on Jannick Green to repel the opponents' attempts, but also on the sharp finishing of Mathieu Grébille, who was celebrating his 31st birthday, to create a first interesting gap (8': 4-1). This excellent duo, with help from the technically gifted Dainis Kristopans and Kamil Syprzak, gave them the lead halfway through the first period (16': 9-6).

Raul Gonzalez's men began to succeed in almost everything they tried and saw their advantage grow as the minutes passed (18': 12-7). The defence excelled in its recovery work and the offensive line finished the job by perfectly exploiting their counter-attacking opportunities (22': 16-8). Towards the end of the first half, the Parisians made a few mistakes, which allowed the visitors to make up some of their deficit (27': 18-13). But after a double from Adama Keita and a chalaba from Luc Steins, they were still in control at the break.

The break did nothing to slow the Parisians' roll (33': 24-15). At the beginning of the second half, Ferran Solé Sala proved particularly inspired among Les Rouge et Bleus' main goal dangers (38': 28-20). And what about Luc's performance? In addition to finding the net himself, our Dutch centre-half cooked up a number sublime assists for his teammates. Thanks to this talented and complementary offensive armada, the capital club had a nice lead half-way through the half (45': 31-24).

However, the Croats did not give up (47': 31-26), and as the final moments approached, they revived the suspense (51': 33-28). After a one-minute time-out from Raul, our rearguard regained its superb form. Andreas Palicka made a series of saves and the attacks were well conducted by an excellent Ferran (who scored his 100th Champions League goal in the process) and the Parisians took off again (55': 38-29). On a counter-attack, the Spanish international scored the goal that put Paris teen goals to the good (56': 39-29). A few moments later, Paris Saint-Germain Handball were declared winners and maintained their grip on second place in Group A.

(Credits: L. Valroff/Team Pics/PSG)