After struggling at the start of the season, losing three of their four first games in the EHF Champions League, Paris regained their momentum lately and continued that form on Wednesday night with victory over Brest.

Their win, the final score for which flatters them somewhat, sees them close the gap to the team from Belarus to a single point as they gained revenge for their loss in the reverse fixture in October.

GROUP A

Paris Saint-Germain HB (FRA) vs HC Meshkov Brest (BLR) 33:26 (15:12)

• Paris steadily increased their advantage in the first to four goals, before Meshkov reacted. With an impressive Stas Skube at the wheel, the team from Belarus still had options at the break, trailing by three
• thanks to Ivan Matskevich, Brest closed in and even briefly took the lead in the middle of the second half. But a more aggressive defence and a faster game in the final twenty minutes saw Paris retake the advantage and never let it go
• two right wings netted eight times tonight: Benoit Kounkoud for Paris, Mikita Vailupau for Brest.
• Paris remain fourth in the standings but close in on Brest. The French side now sit just a point behind Meshkov in third place

Nahi’s red card wakes Paris up

Even if they played very seriously in the first half, you could sense that PSG were, at times, going through the motions, especially defensively.

Meshkov’s Stas Skube was able to do whatever he wanted for 40 minutes, delivering passes and faking a whole defence by himself.

But then Dylan Nahi was ejected from the game for his third suspension and, somehow, Paris’ defence changed completely. More aggressive and more mobile, it meant that Skube was shut down and the French side could pile up fast break goals to end the game with a flourish.