Paris (AFP)

With a delay of one week, the handball players of PSG begin their season with the reception of the German team from Flensburg in the Champions League on Wednesday (8:45 p.m.) in Coubertin, with the challenge of renewing themselves after a summer of changes.

Initially, PSG were to start the season with a trip to Hungary on the side of Szeged while the 2019/20 edition of the Champions League must end on ... December 28 and 29 with the Final 4 in Cologne with PSG , Kiel, Barcelona and ... Veszprem.

But the launch of the Parisian rocket was indirectly delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic: six cases of people tested positive in the Szeged workforce, a team in quarantine and already a headache for the European Federation (EHF) in a calendar that offers very few fallback solutions.

"If a new date is found, we want it not to be detrimental to the club. We have been able to show flexibility, we now hope that a fair decision will be taken," said the Parisian club.

No date has yet been announced by the EHF.

It is therefore against Flensbourg, which represents with Szeged one of the two most dangerous opponents for PSG, that the six-fold reigning French champions will test each other for the first time in an official meeting.

"It's a group which is very homogeneous, I think that everyone will beat everyone. It will not play out much in the first four places", however, the general manager of PSG, Bruno Martini, is wary. which adds the Poles of Kielce "and a notch below maybe Skopje" in the contenders for the two direct tickets to the quarter-finals.

- Studious August -

"The objective will be to finish in first place in the group. We still have this very long group stage where we have to collect as many points as possible and we will do the calculations afterwards", explains captain Luka Karabatic.

Raul Gonzalez spent a studious month of August with his group, favoring training over friendly matches in order to limit the risk of injury.

And PSG has not experienced an interruption due to cases of Covid-19.

Essential for a team that had to integrate five new players including four in the field.

"It allowed Raul to move forward quickly on the establishment of a collective game which is to be rethought and imagined, because we have five recruits. It's good not to have had a setback ", rejoices Martini.

Elohim Prandi and the very tall Latvian Dainis Kristopans (2.15 m for 135 kg) on ​​the back base, Mathieu Grébille and Ferran Sole on the wings and Yann Genty in the goals must compensate for the departures of major players like the Norwegian center-half Sander Sagosen considered one of the best players in the world, the Spanish goalkeeper Rodrigo Corrales, or the winger Luc Abalo.

The automatisms may not be all perfect for this first match, against Flensburg who beat Kielce last week (31-30).

"So much the better if that happens, but I will be very surprised that we are at a level already achieved", warns Martini.

The formula of the Champions League, with a group stage over fourteen days allows certain missteps, not to be multiplied, however, in the quest for direct sesame for the quarterfinals.

© 2020 AFP