0 unbeaten teams, a Danish top scorer and 6,610 goals

EHF / Björn Pazen

20 March 2024, 12:00

On 27 March, the Machineseeker EHF Champions League play-offs will throw off with four pairings, including one featuring two teams from the same country.

Four clubs have already qualified for the quarter-finals, and five former champions are among the 12 teams which qualified for the knock-out stage and are still in the race for the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 in Cologne. Here is all you need to know from the group phase and for the rest of the competition.

0 teams won all matches and zero teams remained unbeaten in the group phase.

1 group match was attended by more than 10,000 fans: 12,260 spectators came to watch HC Zagreb vs Paris Saint-Germain.

1 play-off pairing is played by clubs from the same country, the same as in the previous season: OTP Bank – PICK Szeged vs Telekom Veszprém HC.

1 – for the first time, both group winners come from the same country: Germany.

1 team only managed to defend the trophy since the implementation of the EHF FINAL4 in Cologne in 2010: Barça beat Kielce in the 2022 final after overtime and a penalty shoot-out. In 2021, the record winners had beaten Aalborg Håndbold in the final. In 2023, they lost their semi-final against SC Magdeburg after a penalty shoot-out.

1 coach won the EHF FINAL4 at Cologne as player and coach: Filip Jicha, with THW Kiel in 2010 and 2012 as a player and 2020 as THW coach.

2 teams did not win a point in the group phase: HC Eurofarm Pelister in group A and RK Celje Pivovarna Laško in group B.

2 players still in the competition are in the race for their individual fifth EHF Champions League title: Aitor Ariño and Gonzalo Perez de Vargas (both Barça). Nikola Karabatic (Paris Saint-Germain), Ludovic Fabregas (now Veszprém) and Ivan Cupic (Zagreb) are treble winners.

4 teams – the group winners Kiel and Magdeburg and the runners-ups Aalborg and Barça – will skip the play-offs and go straight to the quarter-finals.

4 participants of the EHF FINAL4 2023, which means all, are still part of the competition: Magdeburg, Barça, Kielce and PSG.

4 former or current IHF World Handball Players of the Year are still part of the competition: Nikola Karabatic (PSG/2007, 2014, 2016), Mikkel Hansen (Aalborg/2011, 2015, 2018), Domagoj Duvnjak (Kiel/2013) and Niklas Landin (Aalborg/2019, 2021). Besides, two coaches were previously IHF Players of the Year: Talant Dujshebaev (Kielce) and Filip Jicha (Kiel).

4 current coaches of the 12 teams still in competition have won the Champions League as players: Talant Dujshebaev (Industria Kielce – with Santander), Momir Ilic (Veszprém – with Kiel), Filip Jicha (Kiel – with Kiel) and Bennet Wiegert (Magdeburg – with Magdeburg).

5 former or current EHF Champions League champions representing 19 trophies are still part of the knock-out stage: Barça (10), Kiel (four), Magdeburg, Montpellier HB (two each) and Kielce (one).

5 coaches of the 12 teams still in the competition have won the EHF Champions League as coaches: Carlos Ortega (Barça, with Barça), Talant Dujshebaev (Kielce - with Ciudad Real and Kielce), Filip Jicha (Kiel, with Kiel), Patrice Canayer (Montpellier – with Montpellier), Bennet Wiegert (Magdeburg – with Magdeburg) and Raul Gonzalez (PSG - with Vardar).

5 times only since 2010, the defending champions made it to Cologne: Barça in 2012, 2022 and 2023, Kiel in 2013 and Vardar in 2018.

5 people won the EHF Champions League as a player and a coach: Bennet Wiegert, Talant Dujshebaev, Roberto Parrondo, Filip Jicha and Carlos Ortega.

6 countries are represented by the previous 30 EHF Champions League champions: Spain (16 titles), Germany (eight), France (two), North Macedonia (two), Poland and Slovenia (one each).

6 former EHF Champions League top scorers are still part of the competition: Emil Madsen (GOG, 2022/23), Aleix Gómez (Barça, 2021/22), Niclas Ekberg (Kiel, 2019/20), Alex Dujshebaev (Kielce, 2018/19), Mikkel Hansen (Paris, 2011/12 and 2015/16, now Aalborg) and Nikola Karabatic (PSG, 2006/07 for Kiel). Filip Jicha (2008/09 and 2009/10) is Kiel’s coach, Momir Ilic (2013/14, 2014/15) is Veszprém’s coach.

7 group matches ended by a margin of 10 or more goals, compared to five in the previous season.

7 different nations (the same number as in the previous season) are represented by the 12 clubs still in the competition: France, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Denmark by two clubs each, Spain and Croatia by one. Croatia replaced Romania in this list compared to last season.

8 group matches ended in draws: seven in group A, only one in group B.

8 of the 12 teams still in the competition have already played the EHF FINAL4 in Cologne: Magdeburg, Barça, Aalborg, Paris, Kiel, Veszprém, Kielce and Montpellier.

10 times in the 112 group matches, 70 or more goals were scored. Last season, it was 22 matches.

10 of those 12 teams still in competition were part of the knock-out stage of the 2022/23 season: Paris, Magdeburg, Veszprém, GOG, Orlen Wisla Plock, Barça, Kielce, Kiel, Aalborg and Szeged. Zagreb and Montpellier replace HBC Nantes and Dinamo Bucuresti.

10 of 14 winners of the previous EHF FINAL4 are still part of the competition: Barça (four), Kiel (three), Kielce, Montpellier and Magdeburg (one each). HSV Hamburg, SG Flensburg-Handewitt and HC Vardar (two each) are missing.

10 times (1995-2000, 2011, 2015, 2021, 2022) Barcelona won the EHF Champions League, making them the record winners. In addition, they won the forerunner competition, the Champions Cup, once.

10 different Spanish coaches steered their teams to an overall of 19 EHF Champions League trophies so far: Valero Rivera (five), Talant Dujshebaev (four), Xavi Pascual (three), Carlos Ortega, Javier Cuesta, Julian Ruiz, Francisco Equisoain, Francesc Espar, Raul Gonzalez and Roberto Parrondo (one each). Dujshebaev (Kielce in 2016), Parrondo (Vardar in 2019) and Gonzalez (Vardar 2017) were the only ones to win the trophy with non-Spanish teams.

12 consecutive wins were taken by defending champions Magdeburg in the group after losing the first two matches against Veszprém and Barça.

15 goals was the biggest margin in the group phase, when Aalborg beat Eurofarm Pelister 38:23, ahead of Veszprém’s 40:26 win at Porto.

16 knock-out matches are still ahead until the participants of the Truckscout24 EHF FINAL4 in Cologne (8/9 June) are confirmed – eight matches in both the play-offs and the quarter-finals.

16 times Spanish teams have won the EHF Champions League - Barcelona (10), Ciudad Real (three), Santander, Irun and Portland (once each).

16 matches is the number of EHF FINAL4 games that Gonzalo Perez de Vargas has played so far, making him the record player of those on court this season. The overall record is held by Aron Pálmarsson with 19 matches.

20 victories in 20 matches were taken by FC Barcelona in their perfect season 2020/21 - this season, Barça have already lost twice in the group stage.