2023–24 EHF Champions League

This article is about the men's competition. For the women's competition, see 2023–24 Women's EHF Champions League.
EHF Champions League
2023–24
Tournament information
SportHandball
LocationLanxess Arena (FINAL4)
Dates13 September 2023–9 June 2024
Teams16
Websiteehfcl.com
Final positions
Champions Barça
Runner-up Aalborg Håndbold
Tournament statistics
Matches played130
Goals scored7652 (58.86 per match)
Attendance658,456 (5,065 per match)
MVP Melvyn Richardson
Top scorer(s) Kamil Syprzak
(112 goals)

The 2023–24 EHF Champions League was the 64th edition of Europe's premier club handball tournament, running from 13 September 2023 to 9 June 2024.

SC Magdeburg were the reigning champions but lost in the semifinals. Barça defeated Aalborg Håndbold in the final to win their 12th title.[1]

Format

The tournament used the same format as the previous three 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 played 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.

Rankings

This season, the EHF decided to make separate rankings for each club competition.[2]

  • Associations 1–9 had their league champion qualify for the group stage and apply for a wildcards.
  • The Association that won the past season's EHF European League gad their league champion and runner up qualify for the group stage but cannot apply for a wildcard.
  • Associations below the top 9 had their league champion apply for a wildcard.

Teams

20 teams applied for a place, with ten having a fixed place.[4] The final list was announced in June 20, 2023.[5][6]

The fixed place for Russia was vacant since the country and its clubs were not admitted to participate in the EHF competitions due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[7]

Participating teams
GOG Håndbold (1st) Paris Saint-Germain (1st) Barcelona (1st) THW Kiel (1st)
SC Magdeburg (2nd) Telekom Veszprém (1st) RK Eurofarm Pelister (1st) Industria Kielce (1st)
FC Porto (1st) Celje Pivovarna Laško (1st) RK Zagreb (1st) WC Aalborg Håndbold (1st[a]) WC
Montpellier Handball (2nd) WC OTP Bank - Pick Szeged (2nd) WC Kolstad Håndball (1st) WC Orlen Wisła Płock (2nd) WC
  • WC Accepted wildcards
Wildcard rejection
Sporting CP (2nd) Dinamo București (1st) Kadetten Schaffhausen (1st) IFK Kristianstad (1st)
  1. ^ Regular season winner while final runner-up losing to GOG Håndbold

Draw

The draw took place on 27 June 2023.[5][8][9]

Group stage

Location of teams of the 2023–24 EHF Champions League group stage.
Red: Group A; Blue: Group B.
Main article: 2023–24 EHF Champions League group stage

The 16 teams were drawn into two groups of eight. Teams from the same national association could not be drawn into the same group.

In the group stage, teams were ranked according to points (2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). After completion of the group stage, if two or more teams have scored the same number of points, the ranking will be determined as follows:

  1. Highest number of points in matches between the teams directly involved;
  2. Superior goal difference in matches between the teams directly involved;
  3. Highest number of goals scored in matches between the teams directly involved;
  4. Superior goal difference in all matches of the group;
  5. Highest number of plus goals in all matches of the group;
  6. Drawing of Lots

A total of 11 national associations will be represented in the group stage. North Macedonia are the only returnees, after Vardar 1961 was disqualified last season. Kolstad Håndball are the only debutants.

Group A

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification THW AAL PAR KIE ZAG SZE KOL PEL
1 THW Kiel 14 10 2 2 410 379 +31 22 Quarterfinals — 18–27 26–24 35–31 33–22 35–32 26–25 29–23
2 Aalborg Håndbold 14 8 3 3 430 382 +48 19 27–27 — 30–32 35–35 32–22 31–26 27–25 38–23
3 Paris Saint-Germain 14 8 1 5 431 412 +19 17 Playoffs 28–34 33–30 — 35–26 35–31 37–33 28–28 31–26
4 Industria Kielce 14 6 4 4 413 402 +11 16 36–36 31–34 30–29 — 28–24 27–27 31–23 35–25
5 RK Zagreb 14 6 2 6 373 373 0 14 23–30 30–30 28–26 22–22 — 30–25 31–20 27–18
6 OTP Bank - Pick Szeged 14 6 1 7 401 414 −13 13 27–28 34–27 29–31 26–25 27–26 — 29–27 34–26
7 Kolstad Håndball 14 5 1 8 393 401 −8 11 34–30 18–29 36–31 30–34 25–34 37–24 — 34–27
8 RK Eurofarm Pelister 14 0 0 14 333 421 −88 0 20–23 28–33 25–31 21–24 22–23 27–28 22–31 —
Source: EHF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Group B

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification MAG BAR VES MON GOG PLO POR CEL
1 SC Magdeburg 14 12 0 2 439 384 +55 24 Quarterfinals — 29–28 28–33 28–24 35–27 28–22 37–33 39–23
2 Barça 14 11 0 3 473 409 +64 22 32–20 — 36–41 34–37 38–30 32–25 40–33 39–30
3 Telekom Veszprém 14 10 0 4 489 436 +53 20 Playoffs 28–30 30–31 — 33–31 34–31 28–21 44–34 41–31
4 Montpellier Handball 14 7 0 7 411 396 +15 14 25–28 25–30 31–37 — 36–25 30–28 35–24 32–21
5 GOG Håndbold 14 6 1 7 429 445 −16 13 25–32 23–30 36–30 32–27 — 32–32 35–27 38–36
6 Orlen Wisła Płock 14 5 1 8 376 386 −10 11 26–28 25–28 37–30 22–18 26–30 — 29–28 30–25
7 FC Porto 14 4 0 10 409 480 −71 8 31–40 30–38 26–40 25–29 32–31 24–23 — 32–30
8 Celje Pivovarna Laško 14 0 0 14 400 490 −90 0 27–37 31–37 33–40 29–31 30–34 25–30 29–30 —
Source: EHF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Knockout stage

Main article: 2023–24 EHF Champions League knockout stage

Playoffs

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Orlen Wisła Płock 59–64 Paris Saint-Germain 26–30 33–34
OTP Bank - Pick Szeged 62–76 Telekom Veszprém 30–37 32–39
GOG Håndbold 53–66 Industria Kielce 25–33 28–33
RK Zagreb 51–57 Montpellier Handball 27–27 24–30

Quarterfinals

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Montpellier Handball 60–61 THW Kiel 39–30 21–31
Industria Kielce 49–49
3–4 (p) 		SC Magdeburg 27–26 22–23
Telekom Veszprém 60–64 Aalborg Håndbold 32–31 28–33
Paris Saint-Germain 53–62 Barça 22–30 31–32

Final four

The final four was held at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany on 8 and 9 June 2024.

Bracket

 
Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
8 June
 
 
 SC Magdeburg26
 
9 June
 
 Aalborg Håndbold28
 
 Aalborg Håndbold30
 
8 June
 
 Barça31
 
 Barça30
 
 
 THW Kiel18
 
Third place
 
 
9 June
 
 
 SC Magdeburg28
 
 
 THW Kiel32

Final

9 June 2024
18:00 		Aalborg Håndbold 30–31 Barça Lanxess Arena, Cologne
Attendance: 19,750
Referees: Nikolov, Nachevski (MKD)
Hansen 8 (15–15) Richardson 8
2× 3× Report  3×

Top goalscorers

Rank Player Club Goals[10]
1 Kamil Syprzak Paris Saint-Germain 112
2 Dika Mem Barça 106
3 Emil Wernsdorf Madsen GOG Håndbold 98
Ómar Ingi Magnússon SC Magdeburg
5 Mads Hoxer Hangaard Aalborg Håndbold 96
6 Aaron Mensing GOG Håndbold 93
7 Niclas Ekberg THW Kiel 92
8 Mario Šoštarič OTP Bank - Pick Szeged 88
9 Mitja Janc Celje Pivovarna Laško 87
Elohim Prandi Paris Saint-Germain

See also

References

  1. ^ "Barça win 11th Champions League title after thrilling final". eurohandball.com. 9 June 2024. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
  2. ^ "EHF improves club competitions ranking system". eurohandball.com. 27 September 2022. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  3. ^ "EHF Club Competitions 2023/24" (PDF). eurohandball.com. 14 February 2023. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  4. ^ "20 clubs registered for EHF Champions League Men 2023/24". eurohandball.com. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  5. ^ a b "Teams set for EHF Champions League season 2023/24". eurohandball.com. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  6. ^ "EHF hat Wildcards vergeben: Diese Mannschaften spielen 2023/24 in der Handball Champions League". handball-world.news. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  7. ^ "EHF Court of Handball rejects Russia appeal against ban". insidethegames.biz. 25 March 2022. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
  8. ^ "Pots announced ahead EHF CL Men group phase draw". eurohandball.com. 23 June 2023.
  9. ^ "Exciting group phase awaits after EHF Champions League Men draw". eurohandball.com. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  10. ^ Goalscorers
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