The champions finish on a high

Match reports

Already crowned champions of France following their 35-32 victory over Nantes last week, Paris Saint-Germain Handball had one last league outing to attend to. On Tuesday evening, in the 30th and final round of the Liqui Moly StarLigue, they travelled to the Arena du Pays d'Aix to take on Aix. In mid-table before the match, Aix's objective was to stay in the top half of the table. Les Rouge et Bleu's objective was to end their fine league season on a high note!

Despite the lack of real stakes, the game got off to a very good start. The only thing missing were the goals (4': 1-1). Little by little, the Parisian attack settled down and were the first to break the deadlock, after successive counter-attacks by Adama Keita and David Balaguer (6': 1-3). But in front of their home crowd, Aix were determined to end their campaign on a high and turned the game around (12': 6-5). At the end of the first quarter, the game was still tight (15': 7-7). 

For several long minutes, the two teams remained neck and neck (19': 9-9). Despite some fine defending and several saves from Andreas Palicka, the Parisians were unable to break the deadlock (23': 10-11). For that, they had to wait until the last few minutes of the first half. While our rearguard intercepted several balls, our forward line regained its cutting edge and made the difference (26': 10-13). However, this was still not enough to put our side in the clear and at the break, after a final goal from Sadou Ntanzi at the buzzer, the Rouge et Bleu were only leading by one goal. 

After the break, Raul Gonzalez opted to reshuffle the pack and changed several of his players. But the scenario remained the same, with Paris taking a three-point lead (33': 14-17) and the home side coming back quickly (36': 17-17). This time, however, our team seemed to get the better of their opponents and held their advantage for longer periods (41': 20-23; 46': 23-26). Thanks to this efficiency, the capital club moved to +4 for the first time (48': 23-27).

In the final minutes, Les Rouge et Bleu continued to accelerate and extend their lead (50': 24-29). Despite a late fight-back from Aix-en-Provence (54': 28-31), our players resisted and closed in on another victory (56': 28-32). Moments later, it was official! Paris Saint-Germain Handball thus concluded its Liqui Moly StarLigue season with a win! Next up is the Final4 of the EHF Champions League. Our team is due to meet Kielce in the semi-final on 17 June at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne (the finals will take place the following day). 

(Credits: J. Azouze/PSG)