Victory on the front foot
The context:
After almost a month's absence since their victory in Ivry (24-30), Paris Saint-Germain Handball returned to Lidl StarLigue action on Saturday evening. Catching up on their Round 8 clash with Aix, postponed because of Paris' trip to Flensburg, Raul Gonzalez's men were first in the standings, with seven wins from seven games, while Aix had the opportunity to move back to two points if they won.
The match:
While Luc Abalo and Dylan Nahi launched this match in a spectacular way with a nice team move (1': 1-0), the start turned out to be more in the visitors' favour. Our team struggled to find their way to goal against the best defence in the championship that featured the imperious Wesley Pardin (6': 2-4). But his Parisian counterpart, Rodrigo Corrales, also had the answers! He managed to lock out the visiting attack for several minutes, allowing his team to get back on level terms (9': 4-4) even though they didn't take it further (15': 8-10). To do this, they had to wait until the last quarter of an hour of the first half. Well led by their wingers, Dylan and Lucio (but also by a 10-minute shut-out), the capital club put seven unanswered goals past their opponents in the space of a few minutes, turning things around completely (23': 15-10). Having steadily gained in power throughout the first 30 minutes, Paris took a healthy lead into the break (17-12).
After the interval, Les Rouge et Bleu continued to up the ante. Sander blasted shots into the top corner and in at the far post (34': 19-14), while Nikola Karabatic offered us a magnificent one-on-one finish that snuck in at the produced a similar move a few moments later to get Coubertin on its feet again (41': 23-17). Our team began to look unstoppable in both attack and defence and the lead continued to grow as the minutes passed (46': 26-18). The Parisian lead grew to ten goals when Henrik Toft Hansen's long pass landed in Benoît Kounkoud's hands, in front of an empty net (51': 30-20). The game ended with two kung-fus! The first one came courtesy of Gudjon Sigurdsson, who followed up with a flying spin-shot (54': 35-21) and the second from Sander Sagosen, who got his shot between Anders Hansen's legs to cap a strong team performance (36-23).
The Parisian of the match: Rodrigo Corrales
Parisian 'keeper Rodrigo Corrales turned in a superb performance. With 17 saves, he equalled his record of stopped shots in open play in a single match (his total record is 21, with four saved penalties, against Cesson-Rennes in 2017-2018). The Spaniard even had the luxury of not conceding a goal for 10 minutes, which allowed his team to widen the gap on the scoreboard.
The word: Showtime
Our players cracked the league's best defence (which was overtaken by those of Dunkirk and Montpellier after the match). For the first time since the start of the season, the PAUC rear-guard conceded more than 29 goals. With a winning margin of 13 points, the capital club recorded its biggest victory of the year in Lidl StarLigue and equalled their best in the Velux EHF Champions League (37-24 over Aalborg). It was also the first time Gonzalez's men had scored more than 35 goals in a league match this season.
Coming up:
With an eighth win from as many games, Paris Saint-Germain Handball confirmed their status as Lidl StarLigue's leader on Saturday evening. On Thursday, in Round 9, they arrive at one of his turning points of the season: the visit of second-placed Montpellier to the Stade Pierre de Coubertin. If Paris win, they will go six points clear atop the standings.
(Credits: TeamPics/PSG)