Champions League: traveling to Norway, PSG challenges an unprecedented opponent

It’s rare in handball, where we end up always coming back to the same posters. For once, PSG Handball faces a completely new opponent this Wednesday. In eleven consecutive Champions League campaigns, PSG has never faced Norwegian club Kolstad. It will be done this Wednesday (6:45 p.m., Eurosport 2) in Trondheim, in the north of Norway.

Kolstad, supported by a major supermarket chain in the country, intends to become a new stronghold of European handball. He gave himself the means to do so by recruiting, this summer, the country’s star, the former Parisian Sander Sagosen, who abandoned Kiel to return to his hometown. Norwegian champion for the first time in the spring, Kolstad discovers the Champions League with a balanced record so far of three victories (Kiel, Szeged, Pelister) for as many defeats (Aalborg, Zagreb, Kielce).

Fifth in the provisional ranking of Group A after 6 days, the club whose squad is made up of 95% Norwegian players does not seem able to finish in the first two places in the group, directly qualifying for the quarter-finals, as more logically compete with Kiel, PSG, Aalborg and Kielce. Kolstad should nevertheless be there for the round of 16. Above all, he can thwart the plans of the big four.

“Stay strong at home and seek victories away”

This is the trap that PSG must avoid. Paris still remains in ambush in second place despite its defeat 3 weeks ago against Kiel (28-34). For the moment, everything is going well but the positions are tight. By losing away to Kielce (30-29) and letting Kiel win at Coubertin, Raul Gonzalez’s team burned two jokers. There are not many left to keep this precious second place, which means a ticket to the quarter-finals. Especially since in the coming month, two perilous trips are planned to Kiel (November 30) then Aalborg (December 7).

“With this Champions League formula,” warns Nikola Karabatic, “I avoid looking at the rankings. I watch it when the last two or three days arrive, when you can start to plan ahead. Before, it’s so long that there’s not much point in saying to yourself, you’re good; there you are less. What we need, if we want to be in the top two, is to stay strong at home and seek victories away. »

This is good: Paris, by getting closer to the polar circle, can seek points far from home. In a week, the Norwegian “beginners” will go the other way (November 22 at 8:45 p.m.).