Kielce and PSG duel for Cologne again in MOTW

Even if the face-off between Kielce and PSG is one we have also seen in last year’s quarter-finals, it still is a thriller in European handball. The first leg on Saturday is the Match of the Week.

A year ago, Kielce, the 2016 VELUX EHF Champions League winners, lost both matches against the French champions, which advanced to the VELUX EHF FINAL4 in Cologne.

Coach Talant Dujshebaev’s team will be aware of the importance of Saturday’s game in their own arena. A defeat would be hard to make up in Paris next week, as PSG have not lost a single home game in Europe’s top flight since the end of 2014.

QUARTER-FINAL, FIRST LEG

MOTW: PGE VIVE Kielce (POL) vs Paris Saint-Germain HB (FRA)
Saturday 27 April, 18:00 CET, live on ehfTV.com

• Both teams also met in the quarter-final last season, with PSG winning both encounters (35:32, 34:28)

• PSG lost just once this season and finished first in Group B

• Kielce finished fourth in Group A before defeating HC Motor Zaporozhye (33:33, 34:29) in the Last 16

• Kielce are without Dani Dujshebaev (still recovering from knee injury) and Michal Jurecki (hand injury)

• PSG will miss Benoit Kounkoud due to a knee injury

• Both coaches, Kielce’s Talant Dujshebaev and PSG’s Raul Gonzalez, worked together and won the EHF Champions League three times at Ciudad Real

• Two PSG players have been coached by Talant Dujshebaev in the past: Viran Morros and Luc Abalo