Style and substance!

News

On Saturday evening, the Paris Saint-Germain Handball were back in Lidl StarLigue acton at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin, turning in a strong performance against Cesson-Rennes in their Round 3 clash.

Les Rouge et Bleu were at home to a promoted side but, this season more than in previous ones, there will be no easy matches! Especially against a side who had held Saint-Raphaël to a draw in Round 1 - as Mikkel Hansen had noted a few hours before kick-off.

Warned by their captain on the night, the Parisians started the match on solid footing! Offensively, Kamil Syprzak, with a nice chabala (3': 2-0), and Ferran Sole, thanks to a subtle lob (15': 10-5), put their side on the right track. But it was especially in defence that Raul Gonzalez's men shone, thanks in particular to an excellent Vincent Gérard!

Our 'keeper won mot of his duels with the Breton attackers, shutting the visitors out for a full 15 minutes! Be it from long shots (22': 15-5), one-on-one (26': 18-5) or when Youenn Cardinal stepped up to the penalty, the France international looked unbeatable!

Just before the break, the visitors finally found an opening. But at the other end of the court, our attack had already widened the gap, with Ferran notably racking up six strikes! At the break, Paris were looking extremely strong with a 12-point lead!

The second half began as the first had ended: with plenty of saves from Vincent (34': 22-8). His performance was so good (19 saves out of 40, 48% success), that the Parisian attack could afford to falter somewhat in front of the Cesson keeper. But, very quickly, they got serious again Mikky's prodigious right arm got Les Rouge et Bleu back to their sharpest in front of goal.

The Danish international was in stunning form and succeeded with almost every effort (7 out of 9). With ten minutes to go, our team looked to have killed off the match (51': 34-18), but that didn't mean they were about to take their foot off the gas! On the contrary, their refusal to relax in defence saw the lead blow out to +18 with a few minutes to go.

Thanks to some fine strikes from Sadou Natanzi and Elohim Prandi, Paris Saint-Germain Handball maintained their advantage and ran out impressive winners!

That's two Lidl StarLigue wins from as many matches for Les rouge et Bleu! On Tuesday night, they travel to Saint-Raphaël looking to make it three out of three!

(Credits: TeamPics/PSG)