Paris (AFP)
After completely missing its first period, Paris SG overthrew Porto and won in Portugal 34 to 31 Wednesday night on behalf of the 7th day of the Handball Champions League.
With this success, the second since the start of the season for three losses (in Kielce in Poland, in Brest in Belarus and against the Germans from Flensburg to Coubertin), the Parisians have four points and move up to 5th place in the group.
This victory was essential for PSG if they want to join the fight for one of the first two places in the group, while the Germans in Flensburg and the Poles in Kielce (with one match each more than the Parisians) share the lead with nine points.
Otherwise, he will have to finish between 3rd and 6th place to play a jump-off before the quarter-finals.
The Parisians will receive Porto next week at Coubertin and will try to maintain this dynamic in C1, after a sluggish start this season, in a false rhythm jerky by the postponements of matches, due to cases of Covid-19 in the workforce of their opponents.
On Wednesday night at the Pavilhao Dragao Arena in Porto, Luka Karabatic's teammates delivered two completely unequal halves: 57% shooting success in the first period and only 12 goals on the scoreboard after 30 minutes, against 76% success in the second half and 22 goals.
During the first half hour of play, the six-fold reigning French champions multiplied their clumsiness, chained the loss of balls and the rear base came up against the parades of the Portuguese goalkeeper Alfredo Quintana.
They returned to the locker room with only four goals behind (16-12) thanks to the stops of Vincent Gérard (11 in total).
They then showed a completely different face in the second half, with a better relationship between full-backs and wingers, as PSG were deprived of their Polish pivot Kamil Syprzak and Spanish defender Viran Morros.
Danish left-back Mikkel Hansen and pivot Luka Karabatic carried the team with 9 and 6 goals respectively, while wingers Benoît Kounkoud (right) and Dylan Nahi (left) enjoyed the second half.
It was on an interception by Kounkoud, while PSG led by three goals less than five minutes from the end, that the Parisian bench was able to leap, raise his arms and breathe, relieved by the turn of events.
© 2020 AFP