Five things to know about Aalborg and Sporting

1. Will experience pay off?

Aalborg are by far the more experienced team at this level of the competition. This is their 11th season in the EHF Champions League and they have reached the quarter-finals in four of the last five seasons, missing out only in 2022/23 when they were eliminated in the play-offs. 

More significantly, Aalborg made it to the EHF FINAL4 final in both 2020/21 and 2023/24, losing on both occasions to Barça. Of the 2024 team that played the final, 10 men are still on the Aalborg roster and they have since been bolstered with experience and talent with the additions of Sander Sagosen, Alexandre Blonz and Juri Knorr this season. 

In contrast, Sporting are playing only their second quarter-finals in history in six appearances in the EHF Champions League. They made it back to the top tier last season after a five-year absence, and went straight to the quarter-finals for the first time, but were knocked out by HBC Nantes 60:57 on aggregate — losing the first leg 27:28 and the second 30:32 in France. 

Those facts suggest that Aalborg come into the second leg as favourites, with the knowledge of how to win the crunch matches.

2. The key players

There is no doubt which two players are the most important for Sporting. Brothers Martim (23 years old) and Francisco (21) Costa made their EHF Champions League debuts in 2020/21 for FC Porto, but really made a splash on the European scene the following season when they and their coach father Ricardo joined Sporting. In the EHF European League 2021/22 Martim scored 50 times and Francisco netted 61 goals; since then, they have become the lynchpins of both Sporting and the Portuguese national team. 

Francisco Costa is currently the second-best scorer in the competition with 123 goals, while Martim has scored 104 times. That's over 40 per cent of all Sporting's goals this season. So far, no team has really managed to shut down the Costa brothers — including, arguably, Aalborg in the first leg.

Aalborg does not have any single player as dominant as either of the Costas, although Thomas Arnoldsen and Mads Hoxer have both been very solid this season in attack. At the Men's EHF EURO 2026 Hoxer also showed he can be effective in defence too.

3. Fourth time the charm?

The second leg of the quarter-final is the fourth meeting this season between Sporting and Aalborg, who were both in group A during the group phase. 

In their first meeting, back in September, Aalborg took the win at home 35:30. Sporting led just once, in the third minute, before the Danish club stretched ahead and never looked back. In the return fixture in February it looked like Aalborg would repeat the win; they led by five goals at half-time and still by three with 15 minutes to go. But then Sporting mounted a turnaround, with Martim Costa and Diogo Branquinho banging in a series of goals to give the home team a 35:33 win.

Aalborg led again early in the first leg of the quarter-finals, but this time Sporting equalised things much sooner and they were level at the break. And for a while in the second half it seemed like the Portuguese side had the momentum, stretching out to as many as five goals up at one point. However Arnoldsen and Hoxer led the Aalborg charge to equalise once more, leaving the tie all square at the buzzer.

4. Expect a high pace

All three of the meetings between Sporting and Aalborg this season have been fast, high-scoring affairs. While both teams can call on excellent goalkeepers, expect the second leg to again be driven by attack rather than defence.

There will be plenty of counterattacks, thrilling goals, and probably more than a few mistakes too: that's what happens when the pace is this high.

5. Aalborg's home advantage

As the direct qualifier for the quarter-finals, Aalborg have the home right in the second leg. And maybe that will prove the most important factor. In the last three seasons of the EHF Champions League and 23 home games, Aalborg have lost just twice, drawn three times, and won 18 times. 

But, there is a glimmer of hope for Sporting: the last defeat was at this stage of the competition last year, when Füchse Berlin won 40:36 in Denmark to clinch their EHF FINAL4 spot. That proves that Aalborg are not invincible on home court.

Make sure you tune in at 20:45 CEST on Wednesday to find out which team will make it to the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 2026!

Photos © Henrik Hansen; João Pedro Morais