So close…

News

The context:
Beaten by ten goals in the first leg of their Velux EHF Champions League quarter-final tie in Kielce (34-24), Paris Saint-Germain Handball had it all to do at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin in the return leg on Sunday. In order to punch their ticket for the Final4 in Cologne, Les Rouge et Bleu needed to do at least as well as their opponents had last week...

The match:

In an electric atmosphere, Raul Gonzalez's men got off to the perfect start. The wayward aim they displayed in Poland was a thing of the past, and after ten minutes, despite playing a man down at several points, our side had begun to chip away at their deficit (11’: 6-3). The opposition defence struggled to contain our forwards and two-minute suspensions rained down, with Artsem Karalek copping two in the first 15 minutes (17’: 9-4). Meanwhile, the Parisian back-line offered up precious little space to work in for the Polish attack, who did well in running down the shot clock and shooting at the last minute, but whose efforts were more often than not denied by the impressive Rodrigo Corrales (25’: 13-7). Coubertin pushed its players incessantly and the Parisians duly played out of their skins, Henrik Toft Hansen scoring a sweet goal while seeming to hand in mid-air while Uwe Gensheimer struck with a delicate lob (29’: 17-10). At the break, Paris were half-way to their objective (18-11).

After the break, the match remained just as intense as in the first term, as did the pressure on the Parisians (35’: 21-13), but when Uwe struck from a seemingly impossible angle, they went within one goal of a qualifying margin (39’: 24-15). A place in Cologne was all but assured soon after when Luc Abalo, released down the right, beat Vladimir Cupara (47’: 29-19) to put Paris a goal ahead on aggregate. The capital club were still vulnerable to an away-goal defeat (54’: 34-23), but it was a different bran of misfortune that befell them as Mikki saw red after being sent off three times (56’: 34-24). After that, our players' cutting edge failed them and the visitors reduced the margin to nine goals and held out for the result (35-26).

The Parisien in the match: Nedim Remili

Despite the team's crashing out of the competition, Nedim Remimli turned in an excellent performance. With 13 goals from 15 shots, the France international kept his side's qualification hopes alive for much of the match. Our right-back wasn't just prolific, however - he was also spectacular, scoring a superb kung-fu and finding the top corner of the goal time and time again.

Coming up: 

Now Paris Saint-Germain Handball can devote themselves to the Lidl Starligue, where two important matches - tripes to Aix and Saint-Raphaël - await them. With wins in both of these fixtures, Paris Saint-Germain Handball will be crowned Champions of France once more.

(Credits: TeamPics/PSG)