Paris (AFP)

The handball players of Paris SG will face the Slovenes of Celje in the round of 16 of the Champions League, while Nantes will challenge the Poles of Kielce, at the end of a group stage disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic and ended on Thursday .

The Parisians have won nine matches (including two on the green carpet due to the Covid-19 pandemic) out of the fourteen of this first phase.

With 19 points, they finished in second place in their group, thanks to the 31-28 victory of the Germans from Flensburg (21 pts) Thursday night in Poland in Kielce (19 pts).

This second place in the group offers the reigning six-fold French champions a more open picture, since they will have to get rid of Celje in the round of 16.

The Slovenes won only four matches (including one on the green carpet) of the group stage, and finished seventh and penultimate in their group (8 pts).

The first leg in Slovenia is scheduled for March 31 or April 1 and the return leg a week later (April 7 or 8) in Coubertin.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the European Federation (EHF) had to reshape its Champions League formula: initially, the first two in each group were directly qualified for the quarter-finals and the last two were eliminated.

With nine postponed matches that could not be rescheduled in time (out of a total of 112), the EHF decided to allocate these matches on the green carpet.

In order not to penalize any team, all 16 clubs participating in this group stage qualify for the round of 16.

The Parisians, who are chasing a first European title for many years, find themselves in the quarter-table of the Germans in Kiel, crowned European champions in December 2020 for the 2019/20 season.

For Nantes (five wins and two draws), the game promises to be more complicated, with a round of 16 against Kielce, very solid in the group stage (nine wins and one draw).

The "H" this season beat Kiel in Germany and hooked the best team currently in Europe, FC Barcelona (30-29 defeat in mid-February in Spain).

The winner of this round of 16 will face the Hungarians from Veszprem or the Macedonians from Vardar Skopje in the quarterfinals.

© 2021 AFP