Zagreb (AFP)
Paris SG won in Zagreb 37-29 on the first day of the Men's Handball Champions League on Saturday in Croatia, ideally launching its European campaign 2019/2020.
Nedim Remili's teammates, without their leaders Luka Karabatic and Mikkel Hansen, left on the bench, broke away in the second half to take a definite advantage (+8 pts), a week before facing the Hungarians from Szeged to Coubertin.
Faced with a physically limited but courageous opponent, the Parisians made the difference in the fast game, well led by Kamil Syprazk, very present on the Croatian parquet.
Particularly applied, the men of the Spaniard Raul Gonzalez are well into the game, leading 6-2 after 10 minutes of play.
Then, the change of system to go into defense 1-5 helped the Parisians to develop their game licked in attack (19-15 at halftime).
In the second half, PSG continued to dominate, conceding Arena Zagreb in total only one ball loss, against 12 for his opponent of the day, too imprecise to stop the Parisian machine.
Successful debut for the club of the capital therefore, who settled at the top of the group A, tied with the Szeged Hungarians, a few months after a surprise defeat in the quarter-finals of this same competition against Kielce (Poland). Only downside: the injury of goalkeeper Rodrigo Corrales, released just before the break.
Placed in a rather strong group with Szeged, also contender for the title, Barcelona and Flensburg, PSG is aiming for the Final Four at the end of the season.
For his second European meeting of the year, the Paris club has rendezvous Sunday, September 22 in his den of Coubertin with Szeged, scorer of FC Barcelona (31-28) on Saturday.
© 2019 AFP