SEMI-FINALS
Montpellier HB vs Füchse Berlin (15:30 CEST)
Both sides were made to work hard in the previous round to get to this stage; Montpellier’s quarter-final with Sporting CP went right to the wire, eventually progressing 63:62 on aggregate.
Berlin, meanwhile, became the first team to win all 10 matches in the group phase and then comfortably disposed of Skjern in the last 16, before almost throwing all that hard work away, losing by four against Kadetten Schaffhausen in the first leg of their quarter-final before turning things around to win 30:24 at home.
Still the only French club to win an EHF club competition on the men’s side, 2003 and 2018 EHF Champions League winners Montpellier will have to manage without Diego Simonet after he suffered an injury in their latest match in the French league.
Füchse on the other hand are without the services of injured captain Paul Drux but have welcomed back Hans Lindberg after his broken hand. He is expected to join his fellow Danish 2023 world champions Mathias Gidsel and Jacob Holm in the foxes’ line-up.
Twice winners of the second tier competition - the EHF Cup in 2015 and 2018 - Füchse have reached the final five times in the last seven editions and have only been eliminated by fellow-German clubs in those final tournaments.
The outgoing Milos Vujovic has scored 69 of the 472 goals scored by 29-year-old Jaron Siewert’s side in the competition, though they are yet to face the imposing goalkeeping duo of Charles Bolzinger and Remi Desbonnet, who have combined for 183 saves for Montpellier.
