On Wednesday evening, Paris Saint-Germain Handball make their last EHF Champions League trip for 2022, heading to the Pavilhao Dragao Arena in Portugal to face Porto in their Matched 9 clash.
1 - THE TABLE
The Portuguese side are struggling in the group stage. Until last week, they were the only team in the competition yet to get off the mark. However, when Magdeburg flew west last week, Porto clinched their first point of the campaign (31-31). Nonetheless, this result wasn't enough to get the out of the relegation zone.
We will thus see a clash of extremes on Wednesday, as Les Rouge et Bleu are now on top of Group A! Their victory away to GOG (36-41), combined with Veszprém's defeat in Zagreb (29-26), allowed them to move ahead of the Hungarian side. Raul Gonzalez's men are also four points ahead of the third-placed team (as a reminder, the first two places qualify directly for the quarter-finals).
2 - KEY STATS
That the Parisians have managed to move into top spot in the group owes plenty to their extremely efficient attacking sector: Paris' front line is the most prolific in the competition, with 289 goals. The trio of Kamil Syprzak, Dainis Kristopans and Elohim Prandi have been the driving forces behind this excellent tally, and all three are in the top six on the scoring charts, with 57, 47 and 44 goals respectively. Porto, meanwhile, have scored 224 times, with top scorer Victor Iturriza on 28 strikes.
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Defensively, the two teams are more evenly matched. Since the start of the season, Porto have conceded 260 goals, compared to 252 for the capital club. The Parisian goalkeepers (Jannick Green and Andreas Palicka) have stopped 88 shots, while the Portuguese goalkeepers have stopped 76 (the weakest record in the competition).
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3 - A LOOK BACK AT THE FIRST MATCH
Despite their ranking, Porto are a team capable of posing problems to many teams! This was the case the first time the sids met this season, at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin. Les Rouge et Bleu managed to get the win (32-30), thanks in particular to 11 goals from the unstoppable Elohim Prandi, but it was no walk in the park for Raul Gonzalez's men.
4 - HEAD TO HEAD
This is the eighth meeting between these two teams in the Champions League. Despite an opening defeat in 2007 (30-23), Paris Saint-Germain Handball have won the all six subsequent meetings.
5 - TO FOLLOW THE MATCH
Throw-off: 20:45
Television: Eurosport
Social networks:Live-tweet
(Credits: J. Azouze/PSG)