Paris (AP) – THW Kiel started the quarter-finals of the Handball Champions League with a 30:30 (16:14) at French champions Paris Saint-Germain.
The best Kiel thrower in the first leg on Wednesday was six-time goalscorer Sander Sagosen. Nedim Remili scored eight goals for PSG. The second leg will take place on May 19th in the Kiel Arena.
After an accident in the hall, the game started a quarter of an hour late. The people of Kiel were not impressed by this. Goalkeeper Niklas Landin saved a penalty throw by Kamil Syprzak, in attack the Dane’s front men put the North Germans 5-1 up to the sixth minute.
Kiel’s coach Filip Jicha relied on the seventh field player early on, so that his team could create good opportunities more easily. However, Paris punished this tactic with hits into the empty goal to make it 5:8 (13th) and 6:9 (14th). At 11:11 (21st) the French had equalized again.
The “Zebras” started the second half with a 3:0 run to 19:14 (34th). A brief cover against Dutch PSG middleman Luc Steins was intended to disrupt the hosts’ flow of play. But Paris didn’t let themselves be left behind and fought for a deserved draw.