Deciding weekend to deliver EHF FINAL4 participants

QUARTER-FINALS, SECOND LEG

MOTW: FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria (HUN) vs Odense Håndbold (DEN) – first leg 27:27
Saturday 26 April, 16:00 CEST, live on EHFTV

• FTC have been a force to be reckoned with on their home court this season, winning six of the seven matches played, with the only loss coming against Metz Handball
• Odense, who have never made it to the EHF FINAL4 so far, have the best attack of the competition this season, scoring 519 goals in 17 matches, the only team to average over 30 goals per match
• the Hungarian side are aiming for their second appearance in the EHF FINAL4, but have never won a quarter-final match on their home court, conceding six losses in their previous six matches
• one of the four players who have scored at least 1,000 goals in the European premium competition, FTC’s Andrea Lekic, could play her last match in the EHF Champions League Women, having announced her retirement at the end of the season
• FTC have conceded the fewest number of goals this season, an average of 25.2 goals per match, with the defence being their top advantage so far

Györi Audi ETO KC (HUN) vs HB Ludwigsburg (GER) – first leg 25:24
Saturday 26 April, 18:00 CEST, live on EHFTV

• Györ holds three wins in the EHF Champions League this season against HB Ludwigsburg — 32:19, 31:26 and most recently 25:24
• the Hungarian side lost only one match at home in the European competition this season, against Odense Håndbold in October 2024 by 35:28; Ludwigsburg managed to win three away games
• the Hungarian side have the largest streak of appearances in the EHF FINAL4 Women, eight in a row, which could turn into nine — their last quarter-final exit dates back to 2014/15
• Ludwigsburg are chasing their second-ever final tournament appearance — if they win, it would be their 30th victory in the top-flight competition
• should Ludwigsburg fail to advance, this would be Jakob Vestergaard's final EHF Champions League match as their head coach, as he is set to take over Odense next season
• both teams rely strongly on their goalkeepers — Ludwigsburg's Johanna Bundsen is the competition’s best goalkeeper with 217 saves at 34.12 per cent save efficiency, while Györ's Sandra Toft is at 103 and 35.89 per cent

Metz Handball (FRA) vs Brest Bretagne Handball (FRA) – first leg: 29:26
Sunday 27 April, 14:00 CEST, live on EHFTV

• Metz head into the second leg with a three-goal advantage – the biggest margin of any quarter-final tie — last week's win against Brest was their ninth in the previous 11 head-to-head encounters
• the last time Brest won in Metz was in January 2024 when they celebrated a 23:22 win in the French league
• Emmanuel Mayonnade's team is still unbeaten in the EHF Champions League this season with 14 wins and only one draw at the start of the season
• Metz were part of three editions of the EHF FINAL4 so far — in 2018/19, 2021/22 and 2023/24; Brest made it to the final weekend only once, in the 2020/21 season when they eliminated Metz Handball in the quarter-finals, 60:50 on aggregate
• line player Sarah Bouktit remains Metz's strongest asset in offence with 93 goals, putting her on fourth place among the top scorers of the competition
• Clarisse Mairot (82 goals) and Anna Vyakhireva (80 goals) lead Brest, though it remains to be seen how much Vyakhireva will feature, after suffering a back issue in the closing moments of the last game

Team Esbjerg (DEN) vs CSM Bucuresti (ROU) – first leg 29:30
Sunday, 27 April, 16:00 CEST, live on EHFTV

• the Danish side have never lost the first leg in the quarter-finals, but they made a comeback in the dying minutes of the first match against CSM, cutting a four-goal deficit to a one-goal difference
• Esbjerg are aiming for their fourth consecutive appearance at the EHF FINAL4, while CSM are hoping to break a curse dating back to 2018, when they had their last appearance in Budapest
• the top three scorers of the season will feature in this match: Esbjerg’s Henny Reistad is the leader in the standings with 133 goals, followed by CSM’s backs Elizabeth Omoregie (104) and Cristina Neagu (97)
• this could be Neagu’s last match in the EHF Champions League Women, a competition where she is the all-time top scorer, with 1,228 goals at the moment
• both teams rely on strong offence, with CSM averaging 29.7 goals scored per match, while Esbjerg boast 29.5 goals scored per match

Photos © Raluca Malnasi (main), Marco Wolf & Olivier STEPHAN / BBH (in-text)