Paris through to the Final4

News

On Thursday evening Paris Saint-Germain Handball punched their ticket for the Coupe de la Ligue's Final4 with a hard-fought 34-30 win over Nantes in their quarter-final clash.

While Paris' attack shone brightly early on, with Luka Karabatic hitting a quick-fire triple (4’: 3-1), it was Nantes who got off to the better start in this epic contest (7’: 3-6). Les Rouge et Bleu thus found themselves chasing the game (13’: 7-11) despite some excellent work from Thierry Omeyer and five goals from Sander Sagosen (16’: 9-12). Their efforts weren't quite enough faced with Paris Saint-Germain Handball old boy Arnaud Siffert in goal, who seemed to be taking a wicked pleasure in denying the capital club's efforts while his side's attacked converted all their shots into goals (21’: 10-17). Towards the end of the first half, however, Raul Gonzalez's men hit back through their Danish stars Mikkel Hansen (26’: 15-19) and Henrik Toft Hansen (28’: 16-19). Back in the match, they cut the deficit down to just single goal by the half-time buzzer thanks to a final strike from Luc Abalo (18-19).

In the second half, Paris picked up where they had left off in the first and Uwe Gensheimer levelled matters (32’: 19-19) before Luka Karabatic handed the home side the lead for the first time in the match (36’: 21-20). Nantes could no longer find solutions faced with a rock-solid Parisian defence, their shots often taking an age to materialise and, save for the odd sniper shot from Nicolas Claire, ending up in Titi's safe hands (41’: 24-23). Soon enough, Kim Edkahl du Rietz made the break for Les Rouge et Bleu (43’: 25-23) but, while it looked like the Parisian machine was finally getting rolling, The H took great pleasure in throwing a spanner in the works (20’: 26-28). Raul thus opted for all-out attack with seven men to once again turn the situation on its head, and it proved to be a judicious decision, as his side quickly regained the lead (55’: 31-30). Thanks to a great entry into play from Rodrigo Corrales, who shut Nantes out for a full five minutes, the Parisians calmly went about building their lead back up and eded the titanic struggle four goals to the good (34-30).

After trailing by as many as seven goals in the first half, Paris Saint-Germain Handball hit back with brio to run out deserved winners - before meeting Nantes again next week, in the Lidl Starligue. Les Rouge et Bleu will now defend their Coupe de la Ligue title against Montpellier, Ivry and Saint-Raphaël at the Final4 in Le Mans' Antarès arena on 16 and 17 March 2019. The semi-final draw will be held in late January.

The Parisian scorers:

Sander Sagosen (9 goals), Luka Karabatic (7), Nedim Remili, Mikkel Hansen (6), Uwe Gensheimer, Henrik Toft Hansen (3), Luc Abalo, Kim Ekdahl du Rietz (1).

The Parisian 'keepers:

Rodrigo Corrales: 3 from 7 (42%), Thierry Omeyer: 12 from 38 (31%).

(Credits: TeamPics/PSG)