Handball: "Exciting except for the title ...", with PSG, the championship is already folded

We can obviously be wrong but something tells us that we already know the future French handball champion. It's the same since the 2012-2013 season of a series only interrupted by Dunkirk (2013-2014): Paris Saint-Germain. How can we be so assertive when only five Starligue games have been played? Because the advance of the octuple champions of France is already considerable. Unbeaten in 5 days while eating all their opponents with relish, Paris (10 points) has two points ahead of Nîmes but above all five over its two main rivals, Nantes and Montpellier, who have fallen twice. Already twice too many: "I already do not see who will be able to prevent Paris from being champion in the end," sums up Franck Maurice, the Nîmes coach. It's already folded.I'm sure we're going to have an exciting championship but not for the title. "

A well loaded #NoComment!

✈️ 🤾‍♂️ 📸 🐶 ⚽️ 🤣 pic.twitter.com/6496XNIFXR

- PSG Handball (@psghand) October 15, 2021

You don't need to have done Math Sup to understand it.

With PSG already two wins ahead of Montpellier and Nantes, Paris would have to lose at least three games this season assuming these two go clear.

Possible?

The glorious uncertainty of sport has no place here regarding a team that never loses on average more than two Starligue games per season: one in 2021, none in the Covid season a year earlier and only one in 2018-2019 .

To find three defeats in the Parisian record, we have to go back to the 2017-2018 season.

In France, Paris and its stars are almost invincible: “What I saw last Saturday against us (25-32), resumes Franck Maurice, comforts me in the absence of suspense for the first place.

I found Paris serious, diligent, respecting the instructions to the letter.

I found a team as strong as usual but with even more maturity than before.

It's really tough.

"

Coach of Chambéry and assistant to Guillaume Gille in the French team, Érick Mathé agrees: “The workforce has not changed this summer and it is a great strength at the start of the season, he notes.

They are already developed when other teams are still looking for each other.

The question is whether, for Paris, the very well-tuned machine will remain so throughout the season.

This is the only uncertainty.

"

"Being promised to the title can be a false friend"

Well, the fate of Nantes and Montpellier is settled: they will (surely) not come back. But the others? For the moment, the hunting peloton led by the Gardois is made up of d'Aix, Saint-Raphaël, Chambéry, Créteil and Cesson, relegated to three points. It's good but we don't see these teams keeping up. Will this competition which is not calibrated to play for the title crumble over time, leaving the field open to an unrivaled PSG? “We can say to ourselves, hopes Franck Maurice, that Paris, when it will be necessary to play on all the tables, will let slip matches. But I do not believe it when I see their bench: most of the non-holders of PSG (Kounkoud, Prandi, Genty…) would be in all the other Starligue teams. "

Érick Mathé continues: “The number 1 opponent of PSG is Paris. Being promised in the title and far ahead can be a false friend. Knowing that you are a champion too soon can play tricks on them in terms of concentration. This is about the only hope of a pack of teams upside down behind the club in the capital.

And in fact, what do the Parisians think of this a priori control already assured on the trophy? None of them obviously say it's already over. But their experience tells them at least that it's off to a good start: “It's only the beginning but we're happy to be in good shape, to play well and to have fun. We have big games coming up, in particular a “road trip” of four straight away games in Barcelona, ​​Montpellier, Kielce and Aix (from October 21 to 30). It's going to be very hot, so you might as well build up some confidence. Faith of a triple Olympic champion, Nikola Karabatic, who can win his 14th title of champion of France and consolidate his absolute record of titles in the French collective sport.

But he also knows that in the end, his PSG will ultimately only be judged on one thing: his career in the Champions League.

The Paris season will be successful on one condition: if PSG qualify for the Final Four and even better, if they win the title of European champion, the only one missing.

The only one that really matters.