The Parisian handball players, rewarded by their proud reaction at the end of the match, overthrew Aalborg (32-30) to end a series of four matches without a victory in the group stage of the Champions League, Thursday evening in Denmark. With 11 points gleaned after 10 days, in the premier competition of European handball, Luka Karabatic’s teammates moved up to 4th place in group A.
They are one length behind their victim of the evening (2nd) and the Polish club Kielce (3rd), the Germans from Kiel escaping in the lead with 15 units on the clock. The first two will qualify for the quarter-finals and the teams ranked 3 to 6 will advance to the play-off.
Paris can therefore still hope to stamp its ticket directly and will find reasons for hope in the last ten minutes, particularly effective, produced to the great annoyance of the Aalborg supporters who thought they would see their team moving towards a victory by taking a break (28-24) entering the last quarter of the match.
At which point the Parisians fought back to score six goals without conceding a single one and in turn lead (31-28). An advantage less than three minutes from time maintained until the end. In the absence of Nikola Karabatic, Elohim Prandi and Luc Steins, six goals each, were the leaders of the Parisian attack, against the Danes led by Lukas Nilsson, author of an impressive 100% on shots (9 goals) .
Insufficient, however, to allow Aalborg to take their revenge on PSG, winner of their first confrontation in the first leg (33-30). It was six weeks earlier, then the last Parisian victory in the Champions League, before three defeats and a draw conceded. The Parisians will try to confirm their renewed progress, at Pelister Bitola in Macedonia, next week.
