Nedim Remili was smiling. A week after the defeat at Szeged (32-29), PSG made a nice double blow this Saturday. Winner (31-25) of the Norwegians of Elverum during the 13th and penultimate day of the group stage of the Champions League, the Parisian club indeed took 2nd place in group A, which gives the advantage of hosting in the quarterfinals of the competition.
Does this victory fully satisfy you?
NEDIM REMILI . It was an engaged match, we mastered it for a large part even if we had a weak time in the second half. The concern is that this unfortunately happens to us quite often. All teams have weak times but there are different ways to manage them. We could have done better because it could have hurt us when they came back to 3 goals (26-23, 45th). But we were able to stay focused and turn the tide after a dead time.
Back in pictures on the Parisian victory:
➡️: https://t.co/hHoa2vsiT5 pic.twitter.com/OkvfbPpV32
What was the speech of the coach during this time out?
He repeated to us what we already knew and that we had seen on the video. We knew that this Elverum team defended with great intensity and panache, we knew that it would close firmly on our attacks. But you should not be afraid to put your head while keeping the lucidity to rotate the ball. We had to stay calm and lucid, that's what we managed to do.
It was your first game of the year in your hall in the Champions League, it must be good to come home…
It all feels good: Champions League or not. We did a road trip in February which wore us out physically. It is therefore a great pleasure to find Coubertin, especially with all these Ultras. Especially since we have recovered this second place in the group. We continue to go up in speed, this is good news because we have a big match against Nantes in 4 days ( Thursday 27 in the league ).
Parisians take second place in pool thanks to this success on @ElverumHandball @ehfcl #PSGELV pic.twitter.com/zAmR2HdFXx
- PSG Handball (@psghand) February 22, 2020After there will be another decisive duel to lock this 2nd place of the group in the Champions League…
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Yes, this classification is very important, it makes it possible to receive during the return match in the quarter-final. We saw last year that this could be a very important fact. We know that at this level of competition, there is no small team. And it would also show that we had a good group phase.
Was it also important to win to send a message to your opponents after the defeat in Szeged?
I don't know, this is a speech by journalists that ... We lost but it's not dramatic, we didn't have a bad match in Szeged. We did 40 very good minutes, it's not easy to play there, for anyone. It's a small room but it's very hot. We are in the nails. We do our bit, we have defeats but all the clubs lose. It is not because we are PSG ... The most important thing is to be there for the final stages and to win them.