The run continues against Chartres

Comptes-rendus

Paris Saint-Germain Handball continued their unbeaten run in the league with a 36-26 victory over Chartres at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin on Sunday. Here's a look back at the Matchday 7 Liqui Moly StarLigue clash.

A week after their biggest win of the season at Créteil (31-45), our Red and Blues are making their return to Coubertin in the league. Their lasthome match was last Thursday's dramatic late win over Bucharest, spearheaded by Kamil Syprzak. The only team to have managed to maintain a perfect record in the first six rounds of the Liqui Moly StarLigue, Paris are now looking to continue their good run against an opponent they particularly like. In 11 meetings, our Rouge et Bleu have always picked up two points against their neighbours , and often in style.

Yahia Omar made his comeback after a few weeks' absence. Playing for Raul Gonzalez from the start, the Egyptian immediately made his mark and fed Jacob Holm, who opened the scoring for the capital club (2': 1-1). The first few minutes were evenly matched and the two teams struggled to find a way through. However, Andreas Palicka grew in stature as the minutes went by, pulling off two consecutive saves. At the same time, the capital club stepped up their attacking intensity and created their first lead (8': 6-3). Chartres did not give up, however, and made up some of their deficit as the first quarter of the game drew to a close (14': 7-6).

Raul Gonzalez decided to make a few changes, bringing on Wallem Peleka and Elohim Prandi. Prandi soon made his mark with a splendid double (19' 10-9). Despite a Chartres time-out, Paris maintained their rhythm and scored three unanswered goals, the last of which Dani Baijens‘ fourth of the evening (22’: 13-10). With their backs against the wall, Chartres took advantage of a number of loose balls and inaccuracies in the Rouge et Bleu ranks to level the scores (26': 14-14). Trailing by a goal, Paris relied on the depth of their squad to get back into the game. Within a minute, the capital club were back in front thanks to goals from Léo Plantin and Ruben Marchan (29': 16-15). However, Raul Gonzalez's men went into the break on level terms after Chartres equalised with a panelty on the buzzer (30': 16-16).

From the restart, our Rouge et Bleu came back with good intentions. Luc Steins scored first and then set up Elo's third (33': 18-17). Chartres put up a good fight, but Jannick made one save after another to keep Paris in the lead (38': 21-20). Les Rouge et Bleu relied on some excellent team spirit in the second half, and all the players worked hard to secure a seventh consecutive win in the league. David Balaguer, also back from injury, restored Les Rouge et Bleus' two-goal lead (43': 24-22). Soon after, trailing by just one goal, Chartres decided to switch to a seven-man attack to reset the score. But a double from Elohim in the empty Eurelian net gave Paris the chance to extend their lead (46': 26-23).

With ten minutes to go, our Rouge et Bleus had completely taken the upper hand over Chartres, and the fate of the match seemed sealed (51': 30-25). The suspense was over, but Elohim delighted the Coubertin crowd with his ninth goal of the day, equalling his personal best for the season (53': 32-25). Dani Baijens followed up with a marvellous kung-fu finish to complete the Parisian victory (57': 33-25). It was a class act that reflected the second half performance from the capital club, who ended up beating Chartres by a wide margin (60': 36-26). With this success, Paris maintain their perfect record in the league! A golden opportunity to boost their confidence ahead of what promises to be a particularly testing week, with a trip to Berlin in the EHF Champions League on Wednesday and a trip to Istres in the league on Sunday.

Reactions from Raul Gonzalez, Jannick Green and David Balaguer:

(Credits: E. Renard/Team Pics/PSG)