Joined on the gong in Norway, the Parisians will play their future in C1 at home in a week.
After having mastered their subject for 45 minutes, the Paris SG handball players cracked in the last quarter of an hour and conceded a 30-30 draw in Norway against Elverum in the first leg of the Champions League. Luka Karabatic’s teammates thus find themselves under pressure before the return match, in eight days in their room at Coubertin (Thursday, 8:45 p.m.): they will have to win or draw by conceding less than 30 goals to join the quarterfinals of final in mid-May. In the next round, it is the Germans of Kiel, quadruple European champions, who are waiting for their opponent to compete for a place in Final 4 in Cologne (Germany), scheduled for mid-June.
Wednesday in a copiously filled room in Elverum (2,500 spectators), the Parisians nevertheless dominated the debates for 45 minutes, in particular thanks to the parades of Yann Genty (13 in total at 30%). In the continuity of his league match in Nancy on Sunday (12/12, including 7 penalties), the Polish pivot of PSG Kamil Syprzak, was the most prominent Parisian player, scoring 12 goals (including 3 penalties) out of 13 attempts .
In front of the score since the first minute of play, Raul Gonzalez’s players increased their lead to five goals at the start of the second period, 20-15 in the 35th minute then 22-17 in the 40th minute. But they never succeeded defensively in breaking the relationship between the backs Stig Moen Nielsen, Eric Johansson and Tobias Grondahl, with the two pivots Endre Langaas and Thomas Solstad.
The Norwegians remained on 8 defeats in a row
Langaas (6) and Solstad (9) between them scored half of Elverum’s goals, while Solstad was named man of the match. The 25-year-old Norwegian pivot, however, had to leave the field at the end of the game, hit in the right ankle. Elverum came back tied ten minutes from the end (24-24) and even took control thanks to Eric Johansson (27-26 then 28-27) in the last five minutes.
Impeccable in the center half position, the Dutchman Luc Steins (7 goals) put PSG in front (30-29) in the score, but Johansson snatched the equalizer at the very last second (30-30). The Norwegians, who remained on eight consecutive defeats in the Champions League during the group stage and who had snatched their qualification in the play-offs thanks to sixth place in their group, were however deprived of their best player, the Hungarian right-back Dominik Mathé, injured knee.