Where the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 participants stand out

A quick glance at the numbers shows that from a statistical point of view the four best teams of the current Machineseeker EHF Champions League season have qualified for the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 2023.

Barça, Barlinek Industria Kielce, Paris Saint-Germain HB and SC Magdeburg lead the competition in offensive efficiency (goals scored per 50 possessions), while in defensive efficiency (goals conceded per 50 possessions) Telekom Veszprém HC squeezes into the top five ahead of Kielce and PSG.

Even if the numbers are adjusted according to the strength of opponents, the result is the same. In this and all other comparisons, goals per 50 possessions are always used. Adjusting goals to the same number of possessions makes teams actually comparable since the raw number of goals is not only influenced by efficiency but also by the number of possessions – whether a team and their opponents plays rather fast or slow.  

Since all of them are relatively similar in their numbers – the only small outlier being Barça, who by far rank first in defence – we are taking a closer look at how they arrive at these outstanding figures with one highlighted statistic category for each team, because the ways to get there are clearly different.

Magdeburg and penalty throws

Seven-metre penalty throws are amongst the highest efficient scoring situations in handball, and throughout the season, 73.4 per cent of all seven-metre throws have been converted. The team that stands out at both ends of the field is SC Magdeburg. They are both the most successful team with 82.4 per cent converted penalty throws, and the team with the most unsuccessful opponents with the average penalty shooting percentage for their opponents only 56.1 per cent.

Among the safest penalty takers with at least one attempt per game, Magdeburg’s Ómar Ingi Magnusson ranks first with nine out of 10 successful attempts. However, the Icelander has been out injured since January and will not be on the field in Cologne. His replacement Kay Smits hits 74.2 per cent of his attempts. Interestingly enough, Smits is the better penalty taker in the German Bundesliga.

Since SCM’s opponents have the worst penalty throw shooting percentage, Magdeburg’s goalkeeping duo of Mike Jensen and Nicola Portner also rank first – tied with HC PPD Zagreb – in seven-metre save percentage with 33.3 per cent.

Among all goalkeepers with at least 20 penalty throws faced Portner leads the competition with an outstanding 35.7 per cent saved – more than eight percentage points better than his field save percentage – while Jensen ranks fourth with 30.0 per cent.

Barça and forcing turnovers

With 7.5 turnovers per 50 possessions Barça turns the ball over less than all but two teams – THW Kiel is first with 7.2. Among the four remaining teams the Catalans rank first.

On forced turnovers Carlos Ortega’s team ranks first with 10.2 turnovers per 50 possessions by their opponents. Amongst their EHF FINAL4 rivals, PSG are the second-best team with 9.6, while Magdeburg and Kielce are below average.

For Barça this leads to many fastbreaks. They are the team with the fastest games with 58.0 possessions per game, even though they force their opponents to long attacks of 33.4 seconds per possession. But the fact that they have by far the shortest own possessions at 28.3 seconds outweighs this.

PSG and field shooting efficiency

The four most efficient shooting teams from the field this season are the EHF FINAL4 participants. Paris Saint-Germain lead the ranking with an efficiency of 72.7 per cent. Their incredibly large gap of 6 percentage points to second-placed Barça is particularly remarkable; the same gap is between Barça and 14^th-ranked C.S. Dinamo Bucuresti.

Among high-volume field goal shooters with at least 4.5 attempts per game, the top four most efficient shooters are all PSG players. Top spot goes to Dainis Kristopans, who shoots a lot from distance, making his 80 per cent efficiency rate even more remarkable.

Looking at the play types after which Raul Gonzalez’ team finished their possession in the knockout stage it is remarkable that they are the only team that appears twice under the five most efficient play types. They score 45.5 goals per 50 possessions in situations where a player cuts towards the goal and 35.7 in transition (fast break and extended fast break).

Extending to the top 12, they are the only team to appear three times, scoring 32.4 goals per 50 possessions that end up with a wing player shooting.

Kielce and two vs. two

In the knockout stage of the current season just 10.8 per cent of all attacks ended in two against two small group cooperations – 7.5 per cent by the line player, 3.3 per cent by the primary ballhandler). These figures are significantly higher for Kielce.

The Polish side leads all teams with a share of 23.5 per cent, so more than double the average, of such play types. Some 15.8 per cent of their possessions end in two vs. two situations with the pivot having the ball, which by far is the highest amount. Another 7.9 per cent are with the primary ballhandler – usually a back court player – shooting or turning the ball over, which is the second highest behind OTP Bank-PICK Szeged (10.2 per cent).

Kielce’s efficiency, however, is not always good. On average 28.3 goals per 50 possessions are scored on two vs. two situations with the pivot having the ball in the end, while it is just 19.1 for two vs. two situations with the primary ballhandler.

In the latter Kielce is the most efficient team, scoring more than twice as high as the average with 43.8 goals per 50 possessions. In the former, however, only HBC Nantes who just had two possessions ending with this play type were less efficient than Kielce’s 12.5 goals per 50 possessions.

More from data analyst Julian Rux can be found at Handballytics.de. There you can read his latest articles, in which he analyses all kinds of handball topics from new, data-based perspectives. You can also find him on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Photo © Victor Salgado