After Aix and Montpellier this Friday, PSG dominated Chartres and joined the last four of the Coupe de France just like Nantes, who defeated Ivry.
The last square of the men’s French Cup will be a square of aces! Indeed, while Montpellier won at Saint-Raphaël (36-39) when Aix had the last word on Nîmes (38-34), the last two tickets went to the other two locomotives of the Liqui Moly StarLigue. For its first match of the year, PSG Handball was able to emerge victorious from its trip to Chartres. Lined up for the first time since his arrival in the capital following a long knee injury, Dominik Mathé (5 goals on 6 shots) participated in the inaugural 3-0 for the double defending champion. A score advantage that PSG was able to maintain until the quarter of an hour. Sergey Kudinov (8 goals from 10 shots) allowed the Chartrains to come back to level but without ever taking the advantage. The two teams went blow for blow, Chartres responding to a 4-0 Parisian with an identical series, but Ferran Solé (8 goals on 10 shots) allowed PSG to take the lead at the break. Raul Gonzalez Gutierrez’s men resumed their march forward following the break but Chartres never let up. With 20 minutes to go and then at the start of the last ten, the two teams were tied. The Parisians however finished better to win by two units (35-37).
???? The @psghand and the @HBCNantes have qualified for the semi-finals of the Coupe de France! pic.twitter.com/RQrvsZeYST
— FFHandball (@ffhandball) February 4, 2023
Nantes quickly folded the deal once morest Ivry
Nantes has not missed its start to the year 2023 either. Unhappy finalist last year, the “H” was invited to the last four thanks to a clear success over Ivry. For 60 minutes, the Ile-de-France residents were behind. Alexandre Cavalcanti (4 goals on 7 shots) and Jérémy Toto (2 goals on 3 shots) set the tone. If Aymeric Zaepfel’s teammates (6 goals on 13 shots) were able to keep up the pace for almost a quarter of an hour, the Nantes then took off. In the space of just under fourteen minutes, Viktor Hallgrimsson (8 saves at 47% efficiency) only went for the ball in his goal once when his attack scored eight goals, thanks in particular to to Valero Rivera (8 goals on 8 shots). A gap then increased to nine lengths which was maintained at the break. The second act first saw the players of Grégory Cojean accelerate to exceed the bar of ten lengths in advance. The gap being made, the Nantes people dropped a little to maintain a margin of eight to nine goals with Ivryens willing but unable to compete. After seeing the USI come back to seven lengths with four minutes still to play, Nantes won by nine units (35-26) and completes the plateau of the semi-finals of the Coupe de France.
