Paris (AFP)
Paris-Saint-Germain took the lead in the French Handball Championship by dominating the derby at Ivry 30-24, three days away from a Champions League summit against Barça as his three pursuers all let go points on the sixth day.
While we are not yet a quarter of the season, the defending champions are already four points ahead of Nantes, beaten at home by Toulouse 34-26, on Aix, who also lost in his room against Saint-Raphael 27 to 25, and on Montpellier, held in check at Istres 25 to 25.
The Parisians walked in the banlieusard room, which however remained on three victories in a row. Leading quickly 9-2, they easily controlled the situation despite the absence of Danish Mikkel Hansen and Norwegian Sander Sagosen, injured for several weeks.
Nedim Remili was once again the best player on his team with 8 goals (on 8 shots). Nikola Karabatic scored 3 times and passed the bar of 800 goals in the French Championship.
Aix fell for the first time this season (4 wins and 2 draws so far) against Saint-Raphael, a team that is recovering from the hair of the beast after completely missed its start of the season. This is the first success of the SRVHB season, which took its first point last week against Montpellier (29-29). The Varese leave the red lantern at Créteil, beaten at Tremblay in another Parisian derby 23-21.
Montpellier have conceded their second consecutive draw in Istres. Behind most of the match, the MHB was still 4 goals 11 minutes from time and reacted thanks to their young striker Kyllian Villeminot (7 goals). Montenegrin Istres Vasko Sevaljevic was the top scorer with 10 goals.
The Nantes have been very disappointing against Toulouse who passed in the 13th minute and was never worried. The Dutchman Luc Steins (9 goals) was the top scorer of the Fenix which points to a good fifth place.
© 2019 AFP