The Preview: Saint-Raphaël - Paris
Handball•
Paris Saint-Germain round off their run of four consecutive away fixtures across all competitions when they face Saint-Raphaël in their Daikin Starligue Matchday 8 fixture on Sunday, 24 October.
Having suffered their first defeat of the season in all competitions midweek away to Zagreb (29-28), the Parisians will doubtless be keen to bounce back this Sunday in the Var region. Admittedly, the narrow defeat in Croatia has no bearing on qualification for the main round, but our Rouge et Bleu have pride and want to win all their matches, as Luc Steins told PSGTV following this unfortunate setback.
This match against Saint-Raphaël is all the more important as it comes ahead of the crucial final week before the season’s first international break. On Wednesday evening, Stefan Madsen’s men will finally return to Coubertin after four consecutive away fixtures for a top-of-the-table clash against Aalborg. On this final matchday of the Champions League group stage, Paris will be looking to secure a win against the Scandinavians in order to start the main round with three points. On Sunday, all eyes will be back on Coubertin for the first big league clash of the season against Montpellier, which could prove a turning point in this Starligue campaign.
Miss just one person, and everything feels empty. What Lamartine wrote over 200 years ago seems to apply to the Var side this season. Whilst they lost only one key player this summer, his departure has greatly destabilised a squad that clearly revolved around him. That player is Drevy Paschal. A product of the club’s youth system, the fifth-highest scorer in the Starligue last season (174 goals) and voted best left winger at the LNH Awards last June, the newly capped French international is now making waves at Montpellier.
With no direct replacement, it is now Antonin Mohamed who is leading the left wing, forming a partnership with the young Enzo Gorgibus, who already featured sporadically for the first team last year. After a mixed first season in the Var (78 goals), Mohamed is now fully living up to the expectations placed on him, having already scored nearly half of last year’s total (37 goals in seven matches). His team’s top scorer, the former Ivry player is one of the few bright spots of this early season, alongside the unstoppable Sergio Perez, who has already provided 51 assists since the start of the league campaign.
For in terms of results, these first two months of competition have fallen far short of the hopes held at the start of the season. Having qualified for the EHF European League despite finishing sixth – thanks to Montpellier’s Champions League wild card – the SRVHB are already all but certain to be knocked out at the group stage. Bottom of the standings with three defeats in as many matches against Nexe (33-26), Elverum (32-36) and Hammarby (34-26), Benjamin Braux's side would need a miracle to climb into the top two places and secure qualification.
In the league, form is hardly any better, with the team sitting in a worrying 14th place, two points behind Cesson-Rennes and Dunkerque, both of whom are in the relegation zone after seven matchdays. Indeed, it was against these two opponents that the Provençal side have secured all their points this season. Between defeats against European contenders such as Limoges (36-31), Tremblay (36-30) and Toulouse (35-31), and those against the newly promoted sides Saran (22-26) and Caen (33-30), Saint-Raphaël are clearly still finding their feet.
This Sunday, Ferran Solé could make further history with Paris Saint-Germain Handball. Once again in imperious form against Zagreb midweek (ten goals from 11 attempts), our winger has now scored 995 goals for Les Rouge et Bleu since his arrival in 2020. Against Saint-Raphaël, the Spaniard could therefore reach the historic milestone of 1,000 goals for Paris – a feat achieved only by Mikkel Hansen (2,043), Kamil Syprzak (1,783) and Elohim Prandi (1,420) in the history of the capital club.
The matchday kicked off on Friday evening with five matches that lived up to all expectations. Away to Chartres, Nîmes confirmed their excellent start to the season by turning the match around in the dying moments (32-33). The match was far less thrilling in Limoges, where the home side showed no nerves against bottom-of-the-table Dunkerque (32-24), whilst Aix secured a crucial victory in the race for European qualification against Toulouse (32-26). A week after suffering a heavy defeat at the hands of the capital club, Caen got back on track with a win in Sélestat (24-26), whilst Tremblay returned to winning ways against Cesson-Rennes (34-29).
This Saturday, Nantes will host Chambéry, aiming to bounce back following their Champions League defeat against Vardar on Wednesday evening. On Sunday, it will be the turn of Montpellier – Les Rouge et Bleu’s next league opponents – to try and build confidence at home against Saran, a few days after a defeat in Barcelona that saw them eliminated from the group stages of Europe’s premier competition.
This match between Saint-Raphaël and Paris Saint-Germain will take place on Sunday, 25 October, at the unusual time of 16:00. The match will be broadcast live and exclusively on beIN SPORTS 3.