PSG stars eclipsed by Catalan sun

FC Barcelona gained their first away victory on Sunday afternoon, beating PSG 33:29 in the Round 4 Match of the Week of the VELUX EHF Champions League. While the Catalan giants remain first of the group rankings, a thorny path to the Last 16 await the Parisians.

Match of the Week, Round 4, Group C:

PSG Handball vs FC Barcelona 29:33 (17:17)

The visitors were taken by surprise by a very good start of PSG, which, combined with Patrick Annonay's saves, were soon four goals ahead (5-1). But after a time-out by Xavi Pascual, everything went back into place.

Nikola Karabatic and Kiril Lazarov were the best Barcelona players on the court, and the five goals by the right back from Macedonia to reach the half-time level, at 17-17. Philippe Gardent, PSG's coach, regretted that his team gave away their advantage so early in the game.

"I think we should have nailed the game after the five very good minutes that we did. They were lacking confidence at this point, and our turnovers and our missed shots gave them strength and easy balls to convert them into goals and turn our advantage down," Gardent said.

Like in Skopje last week, Jakov Gojun's red card proved to be the turning point of the game. The Croatian defender of PSG was excluded three times from the court and there on, the defence of the French club could not cope with the Spanish attacks anymore.

Fifteen minutes from the end of the game, Barcelona were leading by six goals, with Kiril Lazarov being again the main danger. It was quite an easy end for Barcelona, who finally won 33:29, a victory Nikola Karabatic was very happy with.

"It's always a pleasure to come back in France, and I was very motivated for this game. We did a very good one tonight, because it's always motivating to play against some of the best players in the world. I think we deserved our victory tonight, Paris did a good first half but somehow lacked offensive efficiency in the second," Karabatic said.

Post-match statements:

Xavi Pascual, FC Barcelona coach: "We knew we had to stay focused and calm after their very good start of the game. We came back in the game, and by half-time you could see some of their players were tired. We had more good players on the bench than them, and their tiredness lead them to missing shots.

Victor Tomas, FC Barcelona winger: "They had to start very quickly in order to have a chance to win. Like the coach said, we remained focused, and I think our backplayers were really successfull. PSG are a very good team, but they still lack expericence playing together. I'm sure they'll improve in the future."

Luc Abalo, PSG winger: "We couldn't keep up with their pace for the whole game. We were tired by the end of the second half, and we didn't make much substitutions, while they played with all of their 14 players. That made the difference I think."