CdL (M) | Paris crushes Toulouse and goes to the semi-finals
Despite a large crowd, Toulouse had no illusions in the face of an impeccable PSG, which very quickly scored its quarter-final (25-39).
On the side of the André Brouat Sports Center, the Fénix de Toulouse gets a headliner with the reception of PSG. If the latter qualified directly in the quarter-cup of the league, the premises had, at the beginning of October, to gain their place by winning at Cesson (24-26). After two great victories in the league against Nîmes and St Raphaël, the locals advance without pressure during a gala evening, with his audience, facing the ogre of the capital.
Dark Toulouse at the start of the match
However, despite the support of rugby players from Toulouse Olympique XIII and Wolves club Toulouse Cheerleading, the match is not going to be fun for the locals. Danijel Andjelkovic’s men enter the match correctly, but the Blues will sink very quickly against a well-established Parisian armada. In defense, the Fénix is totally apathetic in the face of Nikola Karabatic or Nédim Remili who do what they want. Despite some nice stops by Jeff Lettens, the losses of balls are as much ammunition for the champions of France who fly very quickly to the score (3-2, 4 ′; 4-11, 15 ′).
Paris unfolds peacefully
The game at 7 does nothing, and the Toulouse attack gets bogged down, misses its passes, and does not offer its best shots while Yann Genty is simply impassable (9 stops at 47% in the first act). Chelle’s kung fu for Nemanja Ilic will keep the 3,500 spectators in heat, but the dynamics have not changed. Elohim Prandi and Ferran Sole Sala also go there with their goals and, as the first planted the +10 goal, Danijel Andjelkovic gave his first green card. But the damage is already done (10-20, 30 ′).
The second act will not be different from the first. However, we will attend the first goal with the 19-year-old Toulouse pivot pros. Idriss Firmesse, while opposite, Sadou N’Tanzi is given the keys to the Parisian truck, which he drives wonderfully throughout the rest of the meeting. With 5 goals, a big offensive activity and many assists, the former young international will have shown all the colors to his former teammates (25-39, 60 ′). We will deplore a very tense end of the match between the two teams, where the last minutes were observed by strong altercations between the players and the teams of the two teams.
Mr. Gilbert: “Bringing in young people, seeing them score, that’s part of the pleasure“
Maxime Gilbert: “We knew it was going to be tough, PSG is still a big mountain and we are not spared from injuries. Erik played tonight but it had been 2 weeks since he had played and behind on 4 other injured. In matches like that it’s difficult but you have to put it into perspective. We must succeed in staying focused, in spinning, and bringing in the young people and seeing them score, that’s part of the fun: for Idriss (Firmness) it’s great, this first goal against PSG, in this atmosphere, he will remember it all his life! After that it is true that it is often complicated when you are 10 goals at half-time… But we also find our pleasure elsewhere and we will look for the next matches. There we have no time to complain, we leave tomorrow morning for a big deadline in Cesson. I did not know that we had not lost there for 7 years, but they are really solid this year. They surprised big teams but they also performed well against teams of a similar level, so we really expect a very, very big game, with a different intensity from the game against them in the Coupe de la league.
Edouard Kempf: “Tonight it was necessarily a special match for me because it is my training club opposite. Adama (Keïta), Sadou (N’Tanzi) it’s guys I grew up with at the training center so it’s guys I bonded with outside of handball so it’s really nice to meet some great friends on the field. Tonight, pFor us, it was an international recovery match: they were the ones who had the pressure and I think it was seen. They played 100% from the start and it was tough for us. Now our goal is to focus on Friday’s match in Cesson, and there it will be necessary to take the points. We’re leaving tomorrow, tomorrow night for training and then match day. So no time to rest, but we’ll go all out as usual.“
L. Steins: “I hope we will succeed in doing the same against Chartres“
Erik Balanciaga: “In this match we wanted to regain feelings after the international break, but it was pending against the best team in the championship. I think we could do better, lose fewer balls, defend better… but our goal was to find some rhythm for Friday because it will be a very important match that we will have to win. And tonight, having all this audience was incredible. Last year has been very hard for everyone, the supporters are very important to us, whether at home or away, so to see the Palais des Sports practically full it’s just amazing, I really thank all our supporters to have answered present.“
Luc Steins: “It’s always a pleasure to come back here, with all the memories I have left there, seeing all my friends again, it’s always nice. This season, we have a lot of games to play so it’s always good to finish the game as soon as possible to be able to manage, to rest a little afterwards. So we are happy to have been able to make the difference early in the match, and I hope we will manage to make the same choice on Saturday against Chartres. But all the matches are complicated in this championship so he will stay focused.“
In Toulouse, Antoine Piollat