The Trophée des Champions!

News

Paris Saint-Germain Handball won the fourth Trophée des Champions in its history after defeating Montpellier HB in the final on Saturday (34-27).

The context:
In the warmth of the Palais des Sports in Beaublanc, Les Rouge et Bleu met Montpellier in the final of the Trophée des Champions. With the Final4 format scrapped, this time it was a single face-to-face clash that would decide the title. The objective was the same for both teams: make the most of their pre-season and win a first trophy of the season.

The match:
The Parisian start was certainly a decisive factor in this meeting. After ten minutes of play, the defending Champions of France led by five goals and forced Montpellier to call a first time out (9-4). The defence was imperious and Vincent Gérard took the opportunity to raise his stop count, which in turn led to plenty of chances for the Parisians to convert onto the scoreboard. In the 22nd minute, Nedim Remili scored a goal that forced Montpellier to call a second time-out (15-8, but they continued to struggle to find solutions and Mikkel Hansen (7 from 8) and the backline took charge of keeping Paris well in front. Les Rouge et Bleu went into the dressing room five goals ahead: 19-14.

The second act confirmed the good things seen during the first thirty minutes and Paris' iron defense kept Montpellier at a distance. At the other end of the court, Melvyn Richardson managed to find the odd opportunity, but there were plenty more Rouge et Bleu players who proved more dangerous. They also took advantage of the space in the opponents' defence to treat the Beaublanc Sports Palace to some spectacular play, like the kung fu between Nedim Remili and Kim Ekdahl Du Rietz in the last ten minutes (52': 29-22).
After a well-controlled match, Les Rouge et Bleu brought a fourth Trophy des Champions back to the capital to put next to those won in 2014, 2015 and 2016.