PSG – Kielce: here is the poster for the semi-final of the Champions League scheduled for Saturday June 17 in Cologne. So decided the draw made on May 23 in the German city. The other meeting will oppose the Germans of Magdeburg to the defending champion, FC Barcelona. In case of qualification, Paris will play the final the next day, June 18 against Barca or Magdeburg.
“When we reach the semi-finals, there is no longer an easy match, reacts Parisian captain Luka Karabatic. We are proud of our journey in this Champions League but now we have to finish the job. Kielce is a big finalist team last year. The Poles want the title like us and it’s obviously going to be a big game, a big fight. »
At this stage of the competition, there are obviously no easy encounters. But with Kielce, Paris falls indeed on the heavy. Winner of this Champions League in 2016, finalist in 2022 against Barcelona, this club eliminated Paris in the quarter-finals in 2019. Faced with this opponent, the Parisians will find old acquaintances starting with a former member of the house, Dylan Nahi. Another French international also plays there: the former Nantes player Nicolas Tournat.
The former club of Nedim Remili
In the grip of big financial worries last winter due to the withdrawal of its biggest sponsor, Kielce separated in February 2023 from the ex-Parisian Nedim Remili who left for the Hungarians of Veszprem. Magyars eliminated, moreover, from the competition by… Kielce last week in the quarter-finals. Since the departure of the tricolor Olympic champion, Kielce has settled its financial worries to once again become a force in European handball. For its part, PSG is for the sixth time among the four best European teams of the season, the Final Four. But he only made it past the semi-finals once, in 2017, only to fail in the final.
The semi-final of the Parisians will take place after that between the Germans and the Spaniards, around 6 p.m. This is good news and bad news at the same time. The good news is that before playing, PSG will know their opponent for the final or at worst, the small final. On the other hand, Paris will have less recovery time than their opponent who will have played two hours earlier. In a dense weekend like the one offered to Luka Karabatic’s teammates, two more or less hours of rest can be of paramount importance.
