Paris (AFP)
Serious and diligent, the Parisian handball players won in Slovenia against Celje 37 to 24 in the round of 16 first leg of the Champions League, and headed straight for the quarter-finals where they could find the Germans in Kiel.
The Parisians will have to confirm this success next week at home in their room in Coubertin to reach the quarter-finals, a stage of the competition that they have always reached since the 2013/14 season.
For that, they can afford to lose the return match by 13 goals (or 12 if Celje scores more than 37).
For a place in Final 4 in Cologne (12-13 June), the Parisians could find in the quarterfinals the European title holders, the Germans from Kiel, who won 33 to 28 in the hall of the Hungarians in Szeged in the round of 16 to go.
Even deprived of Mikkel Hansen, and despite the seven days of isolation following two cases of Covid (including Hansen) detected on March 22, the Parisians did not have to force their game to beat a private Slovenian team of five major players in their workforce, a list of injuries that grew to six members from the first minutes of play, with the exit of Croatian Josip Sarac hit in a knee.
Paris SG returned to the locker room at the break with ten goals ahead (21-11), well helped by the parades of Vincent Gérard in the goals (8 out of 19 in the first period, 13 in total).
The Parisians also took advantage of the Slovenian ball losses, to quickly project themselves into attack (11 in total).
Back from the locker room, Raul Gonzalez's players were able to control, with left winger Dylan Nahi omnipresent (10 goals).
The only real danger for Parisians between now and next Thursday could come from the Covid-19 pandemic, because with the knockout matches, the European Federation (EHF) decided that a team which would be unable to playing their second leg due to Covid case would be eliminated, regardless of the outcome of the first leg.
© 2021 AFP