The Debrief: Paris - Montpellier
Handball•
Check out all the key takeaways from Paris Saint-Germain Handball’s victory over Montpellier (33–23) in the first big clash of the season in the Daikin Starligue on Sunday 1 November!
The euphoria following the victory over Aalborg had barely subsided when our Parisians had to return their focus to the league for one final showdown before the season’s first international break. Even when far from their best, Montpellier remain one of the league’s top sides and always produce closely fought matches. Yet the capital club gave their opponents no chance on Sunday. In front of a raucous home crowd, our Rouge et Bleu secured a resounding victory, winning by a ten-goal margin (33-23).
This means Stefan Madsen’s men can head into the international break with a sense of a job well done, having maintained a perfect league record after nine matchdays. Above all, this victory belongs to Les Rouge et Bleu as a team, who pulled together to keep Montpellier at bay.
Rodrigo Corrales's outstanding performance was instrumental in keeping Erick Mathé’s players at bay for most of the match! Brought on after just a few seconds of play after Mikkel Lovkvist sustained a blow to the head and was forced off, our Spanish goalkeeper delivered his best performance of the season. In front of a crowd that never stopped celebrating his saves, ‘Rodri’ kept out 14 attempts to lead his team to a crucial victory against an opponent who are always a formidable challenge.
“It was an almost perfect evening. We lost our concentration for a few minutes in the second half, but we played very well. I’m very proud and pleased with how things went today. I have a lot of respect for the players, the coaching staff, the physios and the fitness coach. We’ve played a lot of matches without any injuries, which shows that we’ve struck a good balance and have a good training workload.”
