Arnoldsen steers Aalborg to MOTW win, Barça victorious in Norway

• with 11 goals from 11 attempts, Thomas Arnoldsen was the hero of the MOTW, well-deservedly awarded as Player of the Match
  
• the Danish champions had to replace goalkeeper Niklas Landin in the MOTW and in the upcoming weeks, as the Olympic champions needs to undergo a knee surgery and is supposed to be out for six to weeks afterwards
  
  
• best scorer for Nantes was Valero Rivera with seven goals
  
  
• in the first ever duel of both teams, a strong first half was enough for Barça to take two away points at Trondheim
  
  
• Dika Mem (Barça), Magnus Søndenå and Erlend Johnsen (both Kolstad) were top scorers with six goals each
  
  
• After a clear halftime lead, Paris almost stumbled against the Macedonian champions, who had not taken any point in the 2023/24 season
  
  
• Luc Steins scored the winners’ strike for PSG
  
  
• Sporting were ahead against Plock from the start until the end, Martim Costa scored xx goals in his very first EHF Champions League match

GROUP A

Sporting CP (POR) vs Orlen Wisla Plock (POL) 34:29 (17:14)

The “magic Costa brothers” delivered a masterclass in their debut match in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League. With Martim scoring 10 times and Francisco netting six goals, sons of coach Ricardo Costa scored almost 50% of the goals for the Portuguese team which managed to find its way back into the Champions League following a five-year absence. Sporting were ahead from the start until the end in a match with a low impact from the goalies on both sides. The hosts finally decided the match with a 7:3 run that brought them to 30:23 in the middle of the second. Best scorers for the ambitious Polish champions were Michal Daszek (7) and Gergö Fazekas (6).

Paris Saint-Germain Handball (FRA) vs HC Eurofarm Pelister (MKD) 31:29 (18:13)

Polish line player Kamil Syprzak prevented PSG from a defeat - netting 11 times, the top scorer of the last EHF Champions League season was the best scorer of the first night of the new season alongside Thomas Arnoldsen, in what was PSG's premier CL outing following Nikola Karabatic' retirement. Hosts seemed to be on the right path having 24:17 in the beginning of the second, but then Eurofarm Pelister improved in defense, while at the same time showing much more on the attacking side of the court as well where they were led by Filip Kuzmanovski, line player Zarko Peshevski and winger Dejan Manaskov. Three of them combined for 18 goals. Paris were not able to retain control of the game with Eurofarm closing the gap to only two goals (25:27) with five minutes left on the clock. Just under 20 seconds before the final buzzer Dejan manaskov scored to bring his team to only -1, but after the time-out Luc Steins decided the game scoring his sixth goal of the night. 

Kolstad Handball (NOR) vs Barça (ESP) 30:35 (13:20)

An impressive duel of two outstanding Scandinavian goalkeepers imprinted the match in Trondheim. Danish Olympic champion Emil Nielsen (Barça), who saved 12 shots, in the end celebrated a well-deserved opening victory. However, Torbjørn Bergerud was definitely far from being the reason for Kolstad’s defeat, having the same number of saves in his tally. Defending champions took advantage from a 5:0 run midway through the first half securing a seven-goal lead at the break. But, the hosts did not give up, slowly reducing the margin all the way to only three goals, as Barça started rotating the team. Finally, a double strike from Javier Rodriguez and Timothy N’Guessan that brought Spanish team a new five-goal lead at 29:24 decided the match.