A year ago, THW won in their home arena in front of a ghost crowd with a narrow 31:29, before in the second leg after the stress of numerous weeks in England the power reserves dwindled and Paris had more staying power with a 34:28 success. “We still have that in mind“, admitted THW keeper Niklas Landin. “We gave up our good starting position in France.”
This time the signs are different. As second in the group, THW was able to skip the round of 16, had a weekend off and before that – as the smooth 31:20 win in Leipzig underlined – went to work with the tailwind of winning the cup. Coach Filip Jicha warned before the game on Wednesday evening (May 11th, 2022, 8:45 p.m.): “We now have a very difficult chunk ahead of us. For us, however, the same program applies as usual: we try to work through the task in a very boring way.“
Paris newly crowned champion
In fact, the PSG handball players are currently in full swing. They had a few problems with the Norwegian representative Elverum in the round of 16 of the European premier class, but they recently convinced at national level.
First, the “Red-Blues” around the former THW player Nikola Karabatic (2005 to 2009) distanced Montpellier HB, after all also Champions League quarter-finalist, in the French Cup with 41:24, before the eighth championship in a row and the ninth run in since 2013. “This title is the first step towards an exciting end to the season‘ exulted PSG general manager Jean-Claude Blanc.
THW hopes rest on Sagosen
Only the Danish backcourt ace Mikkel Hansen (consequences of a pulmonary embolism) is missing from the star line-up. The Kielers hope to be able to fall back on their top backcourt player Sander Sagosen. The Norwegian has been on the bench for the past two Bundesliga games. And in the second leg next Thursday, the THW can rely on an atmospheric arena – completely different than twelve months ago.