Paris (AFP)
Paris SG won a fine victory on Wednesday in the German Flensburg Hall 30-29 and temporarily taken sole head of their Handball Champions League group.
The Parisians have put pressure on Barcelona, their main opponent in the race for "pole position", who will visit this weekend at the Danish Aalborg with the obligation to win to stay in touch. First place offers a direct ticket for the quarter-finals.
The champions of France have made the race in mind for most of the game against a German team struggling for a few weeks and remained on two European failures against Barça and Aalborg, but never managed to dig a big gap. They needed a stoppage of Vincent Gerard at the last second to win.
Paris relied on and on Denmark's Mikkel Hansen, scoring six goals apiece. The latter was playing his second game since returning to competition after a long absence due to a concussion. Norway's Sander Sagosen, who also came back from the weekend against Aalborg, scored four goals.
This is PSG's second consecutive win since the international Golden League truce. Raul Gonzalez's men have six wins and one loss in Barcelona, their only game lost this season in any competition.
The Parisians will find Flensburg in their next match of Champions League in ten days in Coubertin. Meanwhile, they will have played in their hall the top match of the Championship of France against Montpellier, the other French representative in the Champions League who moves Sunday in Zaporozhe Ukraine.
© 2019 AFP