Paris gets its revenge. PSG won their fifth Handball Champions Trophy on Saturday in Cesson-Sévigné, 35-25 against Nantes.
Beaten 37-33 at Futuroscope in 2022, the Parisian French champions got their hands on the trophy inaugurating the season by showing themselves to be dominating throughout the meeting against Nantes, winner of the Coupe de France in June.
Paris takes the lead from the 4th minute
In the Glaz Arena, where the Cesson-Sévigné club, near Rennes, usually plays, the “H”, third in the championship last season, left too much space for the offensive armada of PSG. The capital team took an early lead, leading 4-1 after 4 minutes, and never gave their opponents a chance to come back.
The teammates of Nikola Karabatic, author of a successful performance after a second part of the season spent on the sidelines due to phlebitis, have gradually widened the gap. They also benefited from the clumsiness of the Nantes residents, who wasted a lot of ammunition through avoidable bullet losses. It was a resumption match for them, their entry in the Coupe de France having been canceled due to the impassability of the ground surface in Villeurbanne.
Leading by three goals at the break, the Parisians took off in the second period to finally win 35-25. “I’m super happy to have won the Champions Trophy but I’m especially happy to have started the season well,” said Nikola Karabatic, who will retire next summer, at the microphone of the broadcaster BeIN.
PSG’s last success in a Champions Trophy dates back to 2019: the 2020 and 2021 editions had not taken place due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The resumption of the Championship, the Starligue, is scheduled for Thursday with Chartres-Montpellier and PSG-Limoges.