Barça win MOTW in Celje while French and Danish clubs share spoils

• Barça won their fifth game in a row this season, beating Celje in the Match of the Week along the way (37:31)
• Barça’s Emil Nielsen was elected Player of the Match, thanks to his 16 saves
• with a stunning second half, GOG managed to turn around a four-goal deficit to win by five goals against Montpellier (32:27)
• in a tight game, Paris made the difference in the last ten minutes to finally beat Aalborg (33:30)

GROUP A

Paris Saint-Germain HB (FRA) vs Aalborg Handbold (DEN) 33:30 (15:14)

Thanks to a couple of saves by Andreas Palicka, Paris took an early four-goal lead (4:0), but their momentum did not last long. Mikkel Hansen, coming back to Coubertin for the first time since 18 months, took things in his hands, putting Mads Hoxer in position or making the best of his opportunities in turns. With his backcourt duo in fine form, Aalborg slowly but steadily came back into the game to be only down by one at the break (14:15). The Danish side did better than that, even taking the lead in the middle of the second half, as Fabian Norsten was doing wonders between the posts. But a red card against Luka Karabatic at the 49th was clearly the turning point for Paris. They started to push even harder, with Luc Steins at the wheel. Putting Elohim Prandi in perfect conditions to score, the Dutch centre-back was the one who turned things over for PSG in the last ten minutes, as the French side took a final three goals-lead to finally win their second straight game.

GROUP B

MOTW: RK Celje Pivovarna Lasko (SLO) vs Barça (ESP) 31:37 (17:22)

Barça left very little suspense as to if they were going to remain unbeatable in this season’s Machineseeker EHF Champions League. After 21 minutes played, the visitors were already up by four on the scoreboard. The Catalan side put their feet to the pedal right from the throw-off thanks to a combined eight goals in the first half by their left-handers Dika Mem and Blaz Janc, who made another return to his home town. Despite rotating their players after half-time, Barça remained firmly in control of the game. With Emil Nielsen delivering another great performance between the posts (16 saves), they increased their advantage to six goals, when Aleix Gomez successfully executed a fast break at the 39th minute. With Ziga Mlakar scoring six, Celje remained in the game, but could not come back, letting Barça getting their fifth straight win of the season.

GOG (DEN) vs Montpellier HB (FRA) 32:27 (16:18)

Despite missing Ahmed Hesham, who suffered a bad knee injury last weekend, Montpellier took the best start in the game. With Bryan Monte on offensive duties and Charles Bolzinger making some saves between the posts, the French side saw its advantage grow up to four goals at the 21th minute. Backcourt players Emil Madsen and Nicolai Pedersen made sure that their team was not too lost but still, at the break, the hosts were down by two (16:18). The half-time break allowed the Danish side to set things straight. Much tighter defensively and with Tobias Thulin making 13 saves, they also stopped turning the ball over to put it in the net instead. The impact was immediate, as Aaron Mensing made the score level only after three minutes into the second half, before a 7:1 series led by Madsen and Pedersen put GOG out of reach and on the way to their fourth win this season.

Photo: Lau Nielsen (@hsnlau) - GOG, Slavko Kolar - Celje, Joachim Azouze, Laurene Valroff - PSG