Analyzing the First Leg: Kiel’s Disappointment and PSG’s Dominance

Mortgage from the first leg

Sure, the disappointment after the four-goal first-leg defeat was great for the zebras. You know how difficult the task in the French capital is, where Kiel last won a game in November 2014 (27:25, see opponent statistics). Paris were quicker on their feet and in their minds in the first leg, while the Zebras struggled to stop the French attack with perhaps the world’s fastest player Luc Steins and the brute force of Kamil Syprzak, Dani Kristopans and Elohim Prandi. The trio scored 18 of PSG’s 31 goals in Kiel, with Steins and safe winger Ferran Sole adding another nine in total. In defense, Paris acted with a hardness that is rarely experienced even in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League, and which caused numerous further injuries to the Kiel team. And when the zebras had to go to the pain limit again on Saturday evening in Stuttgart, the preparations for the second leg against THW had long since begun with the game-free PSG. A preparation for a cracker that is immensely important, as Syprzak explained after the game in Kiel: “We always knew what we had to do to get a good result against Kiel.”