Hand: without Nikola Karabatic, PSG gives in to Kielce and gets into difficulty in C1 - France 24

Paris (AFP)

Deprived for many months of its star center-half Nikola Karabatic, Paris SG lost Thursday night in Kielce on behalf of the 5th day of the Handball Champions League, and found themselves in difficulty in the group stage .

After four games played, the Parisians have only two points after their success against the Norwegians of Elverum and their two losses against the Germans of Flensburg and the Belarusians of Brest.

Thursday in Poland, Raul Gonzalez's men evolved for the first time without their master to play, Nikola Karabatic, victim of a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament of the right knee on Saturday in the league, and who will be away from the field for several months.

In this key center-half position, it was first Nedim Remili, then the Danish Mikkel Hansen who took turns to compensate for the absence of the eldest of the Karabatic brothers.

In the second half, it was the young Sadou Ntanzi (20), a training center, who came to lend a hand.

The first minutes went perfectly, and the Parisians took control of the meeting quickly (10-7, 12th).

On the other hand, they badly negotiated the end of the first period (18-18 at the break), and upon returning from the locker room, often stumbled against the German goalkeeper from Kielce, Andreas Wolff (12 saves).

Led by four goals at the start of the last quarter of an hour (28-24, 43rd), the Parisians stuck to the score (29-29, then 32-32), but lost two precious balls in the last two minutes , and ended up yielding 35 to 33.

The very good part of Hansen (10 goals, including two penalties) and Remili (5 goals) was not enough, while opposite, the Croatian center-half Igor Karacic hurt the Parisian defense (13 goals).

The next four Parisians' C1 matches, against Skopje in Coubertin, in Porto, then against Porto in Coubertin and in Skopje, will be essential to relaunch in the quest for one of the two direct tickets for the quarter-finals, or the less secure one of the other four places to compete in the play-offs in the spring.

With one more match, since the Parisians' first match in Hungary in Szeged had been postponed due to cases of Covid-19 in the Magyar workforce, Porto has 5 points, while Vardar Skopje, one match less than Paris on the counter, total 3 points.

© 2020 AFP