2023–24 EHF Champions League

This article is about the men's competition. For the women's competition, see 2023–24 Women's EHF Champions League.

EHF Champions League

2023–24
Tournament information
Sport	Handball
Dates	13 September 2023–9 June 2024
Teams	16
Website	ehfcl.com
Final positions
Champions	Barça
Runner-up	Aalborg Håndbold
Tournament statistics
Matches played	130
Goals scored	7652 (58.86 per match)
Attendance	658,456 (5,065 per match)
MVP	Melvyn Richardson
Top scorer(s)	Kamil Syprzak (112 goals)

The 2023–24 EHF Champions League was the 64th edition of Europe's premier club handball tournament, running from 13 September 2023 to 9 June 2024.

SC Magdeburg are the reigning champions but lost in the semifinals. Barça defeated Aalborg Håndbold in the final to win their 12th title.

Format

The tournament used the same format as the previous three seasons. The competition began with a group stage featuring sixteen teams divided into two groups. Matches were played in a double round-robin system with home-and-away fixtures, fourteen in total for each team. In Groups A and B, the top two teams automatically qualified for the quarter-finals, with teams ranked 3rd to 6th entering the playoff round.

The knockout stage included four rounds: the playoffs, quarter-finals, and a final-four tournament comprising two semifinals and the final. In the playoffs, eight teams were paired against each other in two-legged home-and-away matches (third-placed in group A played sixth-placed group B; fourth-placed group A plays fifth-placed group B, etc.). The four aggregate winners of the playoffs advanced to the quarterfinals, joining the top-two teams of Groups A and B. The eight quarterfinalist teams were paired against each other in two-legged home-and-away matches, with the four aggregate winners qualifying to the final-four tournament.

In the final four tournament, the semifinals and the final were played as single matches at a pre-selected host venue.

Rankings

This season, the EHF decided to make separate rankings for each club competition.

• Associations 1–9 had their league champion qualify for the group stage and apply for a wildcards.
• The Association that won the past season's EHF European League gad their league champion and runner up qualify for the group stage but cannot apply for a wildcard.
• Associations below the top 9 had their league champion apply for a wildcard.

Rank	Association	Average points	Teams
1	Spain	230.00	1
2	Germany	170.33	2
3	France	134.33
4	Hungary	132.67
5	Denmark	131.67
6	Poland	124.33
7	Portugal	82.00	1
8	North Macedonia	80.00
9	Slovenia	78.00
10	Romania	66.50	0

Rank	Association	Average points	Teams
11	Belarus	57.67	0
12	Norway	57.00	1
13	Ukraine	48.00	0
14	Croatia	43.00	1
15	Sweden	38.00	0
16	Russia	34.00
17	Slovakia	33.00
18	Finland	32.00
18	Switzerland	32.00
20	Everyone else	0.00

Teams

20 teams applied for a place, with ten having a fixed place. The final list was announced in June 20, 2023.

The fixed place for Russia was vacant since the country and its clubs were not admitted to participate in the EHF competitions due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Participating teams

GOG Håndbold (1st)	Paris Saint-Germain (1st)	Barcelona (1st)	THW Kiel (1st)
SC Magdeburg (2nd)	Telekom Veszprém (1st)	RK Eurofarm Pelister (1st)	Industria Kielce (1st)
FC Porto (1st)	Celje Pivovarna Laško (1st)	RK Zagreb (1st) WC	Aalborg Håndbold (1st) WC
Montpellier Handball (2nd) WC	OTP Bank - Pick Szeged (2nd) WC	Kolstad Håndball (1st) WC	Orlen Wisła Płock (2nd) WC

• ^WC Accepted wildcards

Wildcard rejection

Sporting CP (2nd)

Dinamo București (1st)

Kadetten Schaffhausen (1st)

IFK Kristianstad (1st)

Draw

The draw took place on 27 June 2023.

Group stage

Zagreb

GOG

Aalborg

PSG

Montpellier

Magdeburg

Kiel

Szeged

Veszprém

Kolstad

Porto

Kielce

Płock

Pelister

Celje

Barcelona

class=notpageimage|

Location of teams of the 2023–24 EHF Champions League group stage.
Red: Group A; Blue: Group B.

Main article: 2023–24 EHF Champions League group stage

The 16 teams were drawn into two groups of eight. Teams from the same national association could not be drawn into the same group.

In the group stage, teams were ranked according to points (2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). After completion of the group stage, if two or more teams have scored the same number of points, the ranking will be determined as follows:

1. Highest number of points in matches between the teams directly involved;
2. Superior goal difference in matches between the teams directly involved;
3. Highest number of goals scored in matches between the teams directly involved;
4. Superior goal difference in all matches of the group;
5. Highest number of plus goals in all matches of the group;
6. Drawing of Lots

A total of 11 national associations will be represented in the group stage. North Macedonia are the only returnees, after Vardar 1961 was disqualified last season. Kolstad Håndball are the only debutants.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		THW	AAL	PAR	KIE	ZAG	SZE	KOL	PEL
1	THW Kiel	14	10	2	2	410	379	+31	22	Quarterfinals		—	18–27	26–24	35–31	33–22	35–32	26–25	29–23
2	Aalborg Håndbold	14	8	3	3	430	382	+48	19			27–27	—	30–32	35–35	32–22	31–26	27–25	38–23
3	Paris Saint-Germain	14	8	1	5	431	412	+19	17	Playoffs		28–34	33–30	—	35–26	35–31	37–33	28–28	31–26
4	Industria Kielce	14	6	4	4	413	402	+11	16			36–36	31–34	30–29	—	28–24	27–27	31–23	35–25
5	RK Zagreb	14	6	2	6	373	373	0	14			23–30	30–30	28–26	22–22	—	30–25	31–20	27–18
6	OTP Bank - Pick Szeged	14	6	1	7	401	414	−13	13			27–28	34–27	29–31	26–25	27–26	—	29–27	34–26
7	Kolstad Håndball	14	5	1	8	393	401	−8	11			34–30	18–29	36–31	30–34	25–34	37–24	—	34–27
8	RK Eurofarm Pelister	14	0	0	14	333	421	−88	0			20–23	28–33	25–31	21–24	22–23	27–28	22–31	—

Source: EHF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		MAG	BAR	VES	MON	GOG	PLO	POR	CEL
1	SC Magdeburg	14	12	0	2	439	384	+55	24	Quarterfinals		—	29–28	28–33	28–24	35–27	28–22	37–33	39–23
2	Barça	14	11	0	3	473	409	+64	22			32–20	—	36–41	34–37	38–30	32–25	40–33	39–30
3	Telekom Veszprém	14	10	0	4	489	436	+53	20	Playoffs		28–30	30–31	—	33–31	34–31	28–21	44–34	41–31
4	Montpellier Handball	14	7	0	7	411	396	+15	14			25–28	25–30	31–37	—	36–25	30–28	35–24	32–21
5	GOG Håndbold	14	6	1	7	429	445	−16	13			25–32	23–30	36–30	32–27	—	32–32	35–27	38–36
6	Orlen Wisła Płock	14	5	1	8	376	386	−10	11			26–28	25–28	37–30	22–18	26–30	—	29–28	30–25
7	FC Porto	14	4	0	10	409	480	−71	8			31–40	30–38	26–40	25–29	32–31	24–23	—	32–30
8	Celje Pivovarna Laško	14	0	0	14	400	490	−90	0			27–37	31–37	33–40	29–31	30–34	25–30	29–30	—

Source: EHF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Knockout stage

Main article: 2023–24 EHF Champions League knockout stage

Playoffs

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Orlen Wisła Płock	59–64	Paris Saint-Germain	26–30	33–34
OTP Bank - Pick Szeged	62–76	Telekom Veszprém	30–37	32–39
GOG Håndbold	53–66	Industria Kielce	25–33	28–33
RK Zagreb	51–57	Montpellier Handball	27–27	24–30

Quarterfinals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Montpellier Handball	60–61	THW Kiel	39–30	21–31
Industria Kielce	49–49 3–4 (p)	SC Magdeburg	27–26	22–23
Telekom Veszprém	60–64	Aalborg Håndbold	32–31	28–33
Paris Saint-Germain	53–62	Barça	22–30	31–32

Final four

The final four was held at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany on 8 and 9 June 2024.

Bracket

	Semi-finals				Final
	8 June
	SC Magdeburg	26
					9 June
	Aalborg Håndbold	28
					Aalborg Håndbold	30
	8 June
					Barça	31
	Barça	30
	THW Kiel	18
					Third place
					9 June
					SC Magdeburg	28
					THW Kiel	32

Final

9 June 2024 18:00	Aalborg Håndbold	30–31	Barça	Lanxess Arena, Cologne Attendance: 19,750 Referees: Nikolov, Nachevski (MKD)
	Hansen 8	(15–15)	Richardson 8
	2× 3×	Report	3×

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Kamil Syprzak	Paris Saint-Germain	112
2	Dika Mem	Barça	106
3	Emil Wernsdorf Madsen	GOG Håndbold	98
	Ómar Ingi Magnússon	SC Magdeburg
5	Mads Hoxer Hangaard	Aalborg Håndbold	96
6	Aaron Mensing	GOG Håndbold	93
7	Niclas Ekberg	THW Kiel	92
8	Mario Šoštarič	OTP Bank - Pick Szeged	88
9	Mitja Janc	Celje Pivovarna Laško	87
	Elohim Prandi	Paris Saint-Germain

See also

• 2023–24 EHF European League
• 2023–24 EHF European Cup
• 2023–24 Women's EHF Champions League
• 2023–24 Women's EHF European League
• 2023–24 Women's EHF European Cup

External links

• Official website