The Debrief: Istres - Paris
Handball•
Following Paris Saint-Germain Handball's impressive victory away to Istres, here's your chance to catch up on everything you need to know about this impressive win.
With their tenth victory in as many games, Les Rouge et Bleu had a successful week in the league. The day before, Montpellier had suffered their first defeat of the season, in the derby away to Nîmes (30-29), which allowed Paris to take a three-point lead on Sunday. Stefan Madsen's men now have a closest chaser, Nantes, who are two points behind the capital club.
This new state of affairs makes Saturday's clash with Montpellier all the more important, as Les Rouge et Bleu could increase their lead over the south-weaterners to five points with a win at Coubertin.
Mikkel Lovkvist 'has not taken long to settle in at his new club. Solid from the outset, our new goalkeeper is now in top form, shining week after week. Since returning from the international break, the Danish shot-stopper has been impressive. After making 13 saves in the victory in Toulouse (33-36), he then proved decisive in Wednesday's Champions League win at GOG (28-31) - with no fewer than 14 saves!
But on Sunday, Lovkvist did even better, equalling his best performance in Rouge et Bleu. With 16 saves against the southerners, the young Dane equalled the personal best he set in Aix on Matchday 4 (24-37).
Winning by ten goals, their biggest victory of the season so far, Paris demonstrated their strength in depth. While no fewer than eleven different players scored, some of them shone particularly brightly, notably Wallem Peleka. While Stefan Madsen decided to rest Elohim Prandi for the entire match, our youth academy graduate once again proved how much he has developed over the past year.
With five goals, Wallem equalled his best-ever league performance, repsiring the record set just a few weeks ago in the victory in Aix (24-37). He was not the only member of the Rouge et Bleu academy to shine in the south, as Gautier Loredon turned in a flawless performance, finding the back of the net on each of his five attempts. This was also a career record for Loredon, who scored the same number of goals in Chartres on Matchday 7 (26-34), only without the same shooting percentage.
With more playing time in Istres, Abdelrahman Abdou rose to the occasion. With four goals and three assists in just over twenty minutes, our left-back proved decisive in putting his team on the right track, setting a new personal record with Les Rouge et Bleu in the process. The same goes for Sindre Heldal who, with three goals to his name, also notched his best performance since arriving in September.
Check out the pick of the shots from the capital club's victory in Istres (29-39) on Liqui Moly StarLigue Matchday 10 on Sunday, a result that saw Paris move two points clear at the top of the league standings.
