2022–23 Women's EHF Champions League

Women's EHF Champions League
2022–23
Tournament information
SportHandball
Dates10 September 2022–4 June 2023
Teams16
Websiteehfcl.com
Final positions
Champions Vipers Kristiansand
Runner-up FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria
Tournament statistics
Matches played131
Goals scored7515 (57.37 per match)
Attendance352,257 (2,689 per match)
Top scorer(s) Henny Reistad
(142 goals)

The 2022–23 Women's EHF Champions League was the 30th edition of Europe's premier club handball tournament, running from 10 September 2022 to 4 June 2023.

Vipers Kristiansand won their third title in a row by defeating FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria in the final.[1]

Format

The tournament was using the same format as the previous two seasons. The competition began with a group stage featuring sixteen teams divided into two groups. Matches were played in a double round-robin system with home-and-away fixtures, fourteen in total for each team. In Groups A and B, the top two teams automatically qualified for the quarter-finals, with teams ranked 3rd to 6th entering the playoff round.

The knockout stage included four rounds: the playoffs, quarter-finals, and a final-four tournament comprising two semifinals and the final. In the playoffs, eight teams were paired against each other in two-legged home-and-away matches (third-placed in group A plays sixth-placed group B; fourth-placed group A plays fifth-placed group B, etc.). The four aggregate winners of the playoffs advanced to the quarterfinals, joining the top-two teams of Groups A and B. The eight quarterfinalist teams were paired against each other in two-legged home-and-away matches, with the four aggregate winners qualifying to the final-four tournament.

In the final four tournament, the semifinals and the final were played as single matches at a pre-selected host venue. For this tournament, it was the MVM Dome.

Team allocation

Location of teams of the 2022–23 Women's EHF Champions League group stage.
Red: Group A; Blue: Group B.

17 teams applied for a place, with nine having a fixed place.[2][3] The final list was released on 27 June 2022.[4]

Storhamar HE and CS Rapid București will make their debut appearances in the Champions League group stage, while RK Lokomotiva, DHK Baník Most and SG BBM Bietigheim make their return.

RK Lokomotiva Zagreb DHK Baník Most Odense Håndbold Team Esbjerg
Brest Bretagne Handball Metz Handball SG BBM Bietigheim FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria
Győri Audi ETO KC WHC Budućnost BEMAX Vipers Kristiansand Storhamar HE
CS Rapid București CSM București RK Krim Mercator Kastamonu Bld. GSK
Wildcard rejection
Borussia Dortmund

Group stage

The draw took place on 1 July 2022.[4][5]

Group A

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification VKR BUC ODE FTC KRI BBR BIE MOS
1 Vipers Kristiansand 14 11 1 2 456 373 +83 23 Quarterfinals 35–29 34–27 27–26 36–31 31–24 34–32 39–24
2 CSM București 14 10 2 2 439 386 +53 22 27–24 40–31 30–24 30–28 30–30 28–28 40–25
3 Odense Håndbold 14 8 0 6 398 373 +25 16 Playoffs 24–34 27–31 25–28 26–22 25–24 31–24 41–22
4 FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria 14 7 1 6 407 374 +33 15 26–26 29–33 27–23 37–26 20–21 28–23 43–19
5 RK Krim Mercator 14 6 0 8 399 405 −6 12[a] 21–27 28–26 23–29 30–32 24–22 35–28 42–31
6 Brest Bretagne Handball 14 5 2 7 377 378 −1 12[a] 29–36 26–33 21–25 24–21 22–24 32–28 31–26
7 SG BBM Bietigheim 14 5 2 7 432 388 +44 12[a] 32–30 25–27 24–27 40–20 30–23 25–25 47–25
8 DHK Baník Most 14 0 0 14 347 578 −231 0 21–43 26–35 19–37 27–46 29–42 30–46 23–46
Source: EHF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
Notes:
  1. ^ a b c Krim 6 Pts, +4 GD; Brest 3 Pts, 0 GD; Bietigheim 3 Pts, −4 GD

Group B

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification MET GYO ESB BUC BUD SHE KAS LOK
1 Metz Handball 14 12 1 1 429 352 +77 25 Quarterfinals 29–28 26–24 36–34 29–23 31–22 35–24 38–13
2 Győri Audi ETO KC 14 11 0 3 444 347 +97 22 24–28 29–28 32–30 32–19 39–26 44–25 32–16
3 Team Esbjerg 14 10 0 4 455 367 +88 20[a] Playoffs 35–28 29–31 35–30 30–20 35–25 39–31 33–20
4 CS Rapid București 14 9 2 3 441 404 +37 20[a] 32–32 30–27 34–32 39–29 27–25 28–22 27–22
5 WHC Budućnost BEMAX 14 6 1 7 346 366 −20 13 28–36 22–25 23–28 30–30 24–23 10–0 25–18
6 Storhamar Håndball Elite 14 4 0 10 377 406 −29 8 24–26 21–35 25–34 29–36 25–27 31–29 37–13
7 Kastamonu Bld. GSK 14 1 1 12 341 452 −111 3 23–28 27–39 27–43 26–33 27–40 28–33 26–23
8 RK Lokomotiva Zagreb 14 0 1 13 276 415 −139 1 18–27 16–27 18–30 27–31 24–25 22–31 26–26
Source: EHF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
Notes:
  1. ^ a b Esbjerg 67–64 Rapid București

Knockout stage

Playoffs

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Storhamar Håndball Elite 52–60 Odense Håndbold 22–30 30–30
Brest Bretagne Handball 49–55 Team Esbjerg 25–28 24–27
WHC Budućnost BEMAX 46–55 FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria 24–28 22–27
RK Krim Mercator 53–54 CS Rapid București 29–24 24–30

Quarterfinals

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
CS Rapid București 56–71 Vipers Kristiansand 25–31 31–40
FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria 59–58 Metz Handball 26–32 33–26
Team Esbjerg 65–59 CSM București 32–28 33–31
Odense Håndbold 55–66 Győri Audi ETO KC 27–29 28–37

Final four

The final four will be held at the MVM Dome in Budapest, Hungary on 3 and 4 June 2023.

Bracket

 
Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
3 June
 
 
Győri Audi ETO KC35
 
4 June
 
Vipers Kristiansand37
 
Vipers Kristiansand28
 
3 June
 
FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria24
 
FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria30
 
 
Team Esbjerg29
 
Third place
 
 
4 June
 
 
Győri Audi ETO KC28
 
 
Team Esbjerg27

Final

4 June 2023
18:00
Vipers Kristiansand 28–24 FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria MVM Dome, Budapest
Attendance: 20,022
Referees: Praštalo, Balvan (BIH)
Næs Andersen, Vyakhireva 6 (14–13) Bölk, Lekić 5
 4× Report  2× 1×

Top goalscorers

Rank Player Club Goals[6]
1 Henny Reistad Team Esbjerg 142
2 Markéta Jeřábková Vipers Kristiansand 118
Cristina Neagu CSM București
4 Katrin Klujber FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria 114
5 Ana Gros Győri Audi ETO KC 99
6 Emily Bölk FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria 92
Angela Malestein FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria
Jovanka Radičević RK Krim Mercator
9 Anniken Obaidli Storhamar Håndball Elite 91
10 Milena Raičević WHC Buducnost BEMAX 88

References

  1. ^ "Vipers seal historic three-peat with dominant win". eurohandball.com. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  2. ^ "39 teams registered for EHF Champions League 2022/23". eurohandball.com. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  3. ^ "Regulations" (PDF). eurohandball.com. eurohandball.com. p. 16. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
  4. ^ a b "Teams set for EHF Champions League 2022/23". eurohandball.com. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
  5. ^ "Groups set for new EHF Champions League Women season". eurohandball.com. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  6. ^ Goalscorers