 Third time lucky for PSG against Veszprém
Less than three weeks away from the start of their VELUX EHF Champions League adventure and a week before the beginning of the French league, PSG Handball took part in the Eurotournoi in Strasbourg over the weekend.
Alongside French side Dunkerque and Chambéry, the line up featured Vardar Skopje, Veszprém and Aragon.
PSG began on Thursday with a comprehensive victory (42:22) over Aragon, allowing Philippe Gardent to give time on the court to every player. Despite the performance, PSG's head coach was quick to remind his players to keep their feet on the ground.
"That was quite easy, but we made it easy for ourselves as well. It's nice to see that everyone cares about the project though,” said Gardent.
The first major challenge for the French champions came against Macedonian side Vardar Skopje, strengthened by a number of quality players during the summer.
Once again, PSG showed everyone what they were capable of and won the game by twelve goals. Mikkel Hansen didn't appear to suffer from his knee injury earlier on this summer, and scored eight times and proved to be very happy with the team's performance in the 37:25 win.
"I know we'll be facing Vardar in the Champions League Group Phase again in October, so it's nice to show them what we've got. They will have noticed that even though we change players on the court, our quality still remains,” said the confident Danish international.
Familiar foes
These two victories meant that PSG had to face Veszprém in the final, for the third time in three weeks.
It was a special game for Gabor Csaszar, who transferred from the Hungarian champion to Paris this summer.
"For sure it's a special for me. I've been very close to some of the guys in this team, so it's strange facing them on the court.
“However, I know what we're here for, making progress as a team to be better,” explained Csaszar.
After losing the first two confrontations, the Parisians showed no mercy this time around. Lead by an excellent Patrice Annonay in the goal, they lead by four goals at half-time and stretched it to eight at the end of the game (33:25).
Csaszar was quick to point at his team's evolution during the summer.
“It's good to finish our preparation with a win, especially against such a top team. It shows us that we've made progress during the summer and that if we carry on working hard, we can be even better. We'll have to, if we want to have a long run in the Champions League,” concluded the 29-year-old.
PSG Handball open their European campaign with a home game against qualifiers Dinamo Minsk on Saturday, 21 September.
Photo credit: Jérémie HAEUSSER - Eurotournoi
TEXT: Kevin Domas / cor
|
