Road through European League Men group matches set

The two-leg qualification round will see the first-leg matches take place on August 31, before the second legs are played from Friday September 6 to Sunday September 8. There will also be a “special path” qualification tie between HCB Karvina and HC Izvidac, played on Sunday September 1 and Saturday September 7. The aggregate winners of all those two-leg ties will then qualify for the group matches.

The group matches will begin on October 8, with all games in the stage played on Tuesday evenings. Six rounds of group matches will decide who progresses to the play-offs, quarter-finals and ultimately the EHF Finals Men 2025.

Playing in group G, defending title holders SG Flensburg-Handewitt will start their group phase campaign against MRK Sesvete. Flensburg are the only side from last season’s semi-finalists that will play the European League this season, with the runners-up Füchse Berlin into the Champions League along with fourth-placed Dinamo Bucuresti, while third-ranked Rhein-Neckar Löwen will not play any European cup competition in the 2024/25 season.

Two teams in the European League Men 2024/25 were responsible for one of the most exciting of the quarter-final ties in last season’s Champions League: Montpellier Handball and THW Kiel. Montpellier won the first leg of the quarter-final encounter by nine goals, setting up a seemingly impossible task for THW Kiel — but the German side pulled off the miracle, overcame the deficit and qualified for the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 2024.

In the European League 2024/25, Montpellier will play in group B and will meet an as yet unknown opponent advancing from the qualification stage in round 1. Kiel will play in group E and take on Spanish side Bathco Bm. Torrelavega in the opening match of the group phase.

Flensburg, Montpellier and Kiel are all past Champions League winning clubs. Kiel have also won the previous iteration of the European League, the EHF Cup, four times, while last season was Flensburg’s second title in the second-tier European cup competition. No French team has ever won the second-tier competition.

One other past Champions League winner in this season of the European League is Vardar, who will start in group F. The Macedonian side will meet an unknown opponent progressing from the qualification round in their group phase opener.  

See the full schedule for the EHF European League Men 2024/25 group matches here and the schedule for the upcoming qualification round here.

Photos: kolektiff (main), Sascha Klahn (in-text)