For its first official match with a renewed workforce compared to last season, Paris SG gave in at the end of the match and lost against the Germans of Flensburg (28-29), Wednesday night in the Champions League.
Nikola Karabatic's teammates found their audience in the stands of the Coubertin stadium, however in limited quantities due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the health measures in force in the capital.
The PSG hand version 2020/21 was tested for the first time with its five new recruits, in particular the Latvian Dainis Kristopans, or the French Elohim Prandi and Matthieu Grébille.
Facing Flensburg, who will be one of their main opponents in this group stage of the Champions League with the Hungarians of Szeged and the Poles of Kielce, the Parisians have mastered their subject during the first period, returning to the locker room with a four-goal advantage (18-14).
“We played a good game, but we lost a lot of balls.
We conceded easy goals, and then they played with confidence, ”commented Luka Karabatic, Parisian top scorer of the meeting with 5 goals.
The automatisms at the start of the season are not yet all developed, with five new players including four in the field, to integrate.
Gradually in the second half, the Germans came back and took the lead at the start of the last ten minutes (25-24), never to let the Parisians come back to score.
"We wanted to start with a victory, but we fell against a very good team from Flensburg, one of the best in Europe"
Luka Karabatic
"We wanted to start with a victory, but we fell against a very good team from Flensburg, one of the best in Europe," acknowledged the pivot of PSG.
“It's never nice to lose, but even if it hurts, it's only the first game of the season.
We were playing again after a very, very long break, which is unusual for us.
We still have to improve as a team, improve game after game. "
The Parisians had seen their debut in the Champions League delayed by a week: the meeting in Szeged last week had been postponed due to several cases of Covid-19 within the Hungarian workforce.
The EHF has not yet communicated a new date for this meeting.
To play the rest of the competition, PSG must take one of the first six places in its group at the end of the 14 matches in the group stage.
The first two teams qualify for the quarterfinals, the other four must go through a barrage of access to the quarterfinals.
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