A few days after falling short - despite battling to the end - in thei return leg of their EHF Champions League tie with Veszprém, Les Rouge et Bleu returned to Coubertin to turn their attention to their remaining objectives: the league championship and the Coupe de France. With three days to go before they travel to Montpellier in the hope of clinching a place in the Coupe de France final, the Parisians first needed to regain their confidence against Europe-chasing Saint-Raphaël, who were determined to give Stefan Madsen's men a run for their money.
Once again spurred on by their home crowd, Paris got off to a flying start against a slow-to-start Saint-Raphaël side. Noah Gaudin, who scored three goals in the first five minutes (5': 6-1), distinguished himself with a fine start. In defence, Jannick Green also put on a show from the outset, making four early saves. The Parisian 'keeper even spearheaded the capital club's counter-attacks with a splendid ball that broke all the visitors' on its way to Sebastian Karlsson, who beat Alexandre Demaille one on one, for his third goal of the match (10': 9-3).
However, Saint-Raphaël were by no means done for. Showing more patience, the side from Provence gradually clawed their way back into the match, relying in particular on the versatility of Drevy Paschal, the beating heart of the team and scorer of three goals (20': 12-8). For the Parisians, while Noah Gaudin continued to shine, Stefan Madsen relied on the depth of his squad and saw Mateo Maras, Gautier Loredon and Simen Lyse find the back of the net one after the other (27': 15-12). However, the visitors made a final push just before the break, closing the gap to go into the break on level terms (30': 16-16).
As soon as the break was over, Paris resumed the rhythm they had shown in the opening minutes. Yahia Omar and Ferran Solé, who had been rested in the first half, came on, and it was the latter who quickly made his mark with three goals in the space of a few minutes, forcing Benjamin Braux to call his last time-out of the match (36': 21-17).
Kamil Syprzak, another player who had been rested for much of the first half, also made his mark, scoring his 1700th goal in all competitions for Paris Saint-Germain when he hit his second of the match (41': 24-21). The second half continued to be as tightly contested as the first and, despite a seven-goal scoring spree from Elohim Prandi, the lead was barely extended against a side that use a seven-man attack to great effect (46': 27-24).
With only a single point separating the two teams going into the final ten minutes, a nail-biting conclusion was clearly on the cards (52': 30-29). Les Rouge et Bleu took advantage of temporarily being a man up to regain the lead at just the right moment (54': 31-29). Then, with Ylan Augustine sent off for good, Stefan Madsen's men extended their lead and sealed an all-important victory in the race for the title (60': 36-34).
Elohim Prandi: nine goals, Noah Gaudin: seven, Ferran Solé: six, Kamil Syprzak, Sebastian Karlsson: three, Luka Karabatic, Simen Lyse: two, Yahia Omar, Mateo Maras, Gautier Loredon, Karl Konan: one goal. Jannick Green, Mikkel Lovkvist: six saves.
At 20:00 on Wednesday 15 April, Paris kick off a run of three consecutive away games with a clash against Montpellier in the Coupe de France semi-finals. After that, the capital club will have another tricky duel to contend with at Limoges, currently fourth in the Liqui Moly StarLigue, at 19:00 on Saturday 18 April.
