Handball tickets - EHF Champions League - 2025/2026 season

The Machineseeker EHF Champions League in the 2025/2026 season is not a story waiting for June to become great. It already is, here and now, at the beginning of April, stretched between arenas in Lisbon, Kielce, Nantes and Paris, while at the other end of the map Cologne is already in sight. The final weekend is scheduled for June 13 and 14, 2026, at LANXESS Arena, a venue that can host around 19,500 spectators for handball, so it is clear why every spring match in European club handball is measured by one question: who is stable enough to survive two months of pressure and reach the court where the trophy is not lifted, but wrestled away. This season marks the 66th edition of the strongest European club competition. The defending champions are SC Magdeburg, the team that in June 2025 defeated Füchse Berlin 32:26 in an all-German final and claimed its third European title, after 2002 and 2023. That detail is not just a historical note. It sets the tone of the season: Magdeburg is no longer the hunter coming from the shadows, but the team everyone looks at as the reference point. In a competition in which Barça has collected 11 titles, every new attempt to build its own era immediately carries extra weight.

What the road to Cologne looks like

The format has remained the one that gave the handball Champions League a clear, hard rhythm. Sixteen clubs are divided into two groups of eight. Each club plays 14 matches, home and away against all opponents in its group. The top two teams from each group advance directly to the quarter-finals. The clubs finishing from third to sixth place enter the play-off, that is, the round of 16 over two matches, and the winners of those ties join the four already qualified teams in the quarter-finals. After that come two more quarter-final clashes decided on aggregate score, and then the final weekend in Cologne, where everything comes down to the semi-finals, the third-place match and the final.

Who played this season

The group stage featured 16 clubs from 11 countries, and the composition of the competition clearly shows how broad the European top level is, but also how several leagues still remain dominant.

• Group A: Füchse Berlin, Aalborg Håndbold, Industria Kielce, HBC Nantes, One Veszprém HC, Sporting Clube de Portugal, Dinamo Bucuresti, Kolstad Håndball
• Group B: Barça, SC Magdeburg, Orlen Wisla Plock, Paris Saint-Germain, GOG, OTP Bank - PICK Szeged, HC Eurofarm Pelister, HC Zagreb

This is not a list assembled by inertia, but a mirror of today's European handball. There are old champions such as Barça, Magdeburg and Kielce, clubs that have lived in the final stages for years such as Veszprém and PSG, and then a new wave with a very clear identity: Sporting with the Costa brothers, Füchse Berlin with Mathias Gidsel as the face of the competition, Aalborg as a Scandinavian machine, and Nantes as a team that rarely screams, but almost always stays alive in May.

What the group stage said

The group stage ended on March 12, 2026, and the table brought both the expected and the unexpected. In Group A, Füchse Berlin took first place with 22 points, ahead of Aalborg with 21. Kielce finished third with 17, Nantes fourth with 16, Veszprém fifth with 14, Sporting sixth also with 14, while Dinamo Bucuresti and Kolstad were eliminated from the race. In Group B, Barça were almost flawless: 26 points from 14 matches and a goal difference of 492:382. Magdeburg finished second with 23 points, Plock third with 18, PSG fourth with 13, GOG fifth with 13, Szeged sixth with 11, while Eurofarm Pelister and Zagreb finished below the line. The numbers themselves carry a story. Barça were the team with the strongest rhythm and the biggest margin in their group, but Berlin in the other group looked like a side that knows how to win even when a match tightens into tension. Aalborg finished with the best defensive balance in Group A, while Veszprém paid the price for inconsistency, even though by names and roster depth it belongs among the direct candidates for Cologne. Zagreb, from the Croatian perspective, had a difficult season and finished last in Group B with only two points, but merely entering a company like this means a series of nights against clubs that as a rule have a deeper squad, higher tempo and broader rotation than most domestic champions in Europe.

• Directly into the quarter-finals: Füchse Berlin, Aalborg Håndbold, Barça, SC Magdeburg
• Into the play-off: Industria Kielce, HBC Nantes, One Veszprém HC, Sporting Clube de Portugal, Orlen Wisla Plock, Paris Saint-Germain, GOG, OTP Bank - PICK Szeged
• Eliminated after the groups: Dinamo Bucuresti, Kolstad Håndball, HC Eurofarm Pelister, HC Zagreb

The current moment of the season: the April play-off

As of April 7, 2026, the competition is in its trickiest phase: nothing is over yet, and yet it is already clear who has opened the doors to the quarter-finals for themselves. Veszprém crushed Paris Saint-Germain 32:24 in the first leg and went to the return match in Paris with an eight-goal advantage. Nantes brought back a 34:33 victory from Denmark against GOG, therefore a minimal one, but with a psychologically enormous advantage because they play the return leg at home. Szeged beat Kielce 26:23 at home, which is just enough for hope, but too little for peace. Sporting defeated Wisla Plock 33:29 in Lisbon and carries a four-goal advantage to Poland. Those pairings reveal best why the EHF Champions League is different from a pure league competition. In a league, a bad evening hurts, but it can be corrected at the weekend. Here, one empty five-minute spell can take away your spring. Veszprém against PSG looked like a team that had finally connected power and discipline. Nantes were Nantes again: a team that is not necessarily the most spectacular, but knows how to survive a match in which the opponent thinks it had enough under control. Sporting and Szeged, each in its own way, earned an advantage that is not comfortable, but dangerous: large enough for you to feel it, too small to protect you.

The quarter-final bracket has already been drawn

The EHF has already set the quarter-final framework. The winner of the Sporting - Plock tie goes to SC Magdeburg. The winner of the Szeged - Kielce tie goes to Barça. The winner of the GOG - Nantes tie goes to Füchse Berlin. The winner of the Veszprém - PSG tie goes to Aalborg. The first quarter-final matches are scheduled for April 29 and 30, with the return legs on May 6 and 7. That means even bigger stories are hidden behind the April ties. Magdeburg could get Sporting, a team that plays bravely and quickly, with the Costa brothers as generators of chaos. Barça could very easily get Kielce, a club that has survived too many ties like these for anyone to write them off. Berlin could run into Nantes in the quarter-finals, a side that has already dealt them a painful blow in the group stage. Aalborg, on the other hand, await either Veszprém or PSG, therefore an opponent with a huge ceiling and even greater pressure.

The players because of whom the season is remembered

The Champions League has never been just a tournament of systems; it is always also a gallery of players who turn the breaking points of matches into personal scenes. This season, the leading name so far is Mathias Gidsel. The Danish right back of Füchse Berlin leads the scoring chart after the group stage and the first match of the knockout phase with 120 goals. Right behind him is Elohim Prandi of PSG with 115, then Frederik Bjerre of GOG with 112. Francisco Costa of Sporting has reached 102 goals, and Melvyn Richardson of Wisla Plock 99. These are not just numbers for statisticians. Gidsel is a symbol of the new generation of handball superstars: a player who combines volume, elegance and brutal efficiency. Prandi gives PSG shooting power and duel play that very few can follow without defensive help. Francisco Costa is not just a talent, but Sporting's engine, the face of a club that at the European top has stopped being exotic and become a problem for everyone. When such players are combined with teams that already have experience of playing with a three-possession gap, that kind of tension is created for which even an ordinary Wednesday in March or April is enough for an arena to sound like a final weekend.

• Top scorers up to April 7, 2026: Mathias Gidsel 120, Elohim Prandi 115, Frederik Bjerre 112, Francisco Costa 102, Melvyn Richardson 99
• Names that constantly appear in stories about the final stages: Nedim Remili, Martim Costa, Aleix Gómez, Félix Claar, Melvyn Richardson, Thibaut Briet

The arenas in which the season breathed

The Champions League is always also a journey through the handball geography of Europe. From Barcelona to Bitola, from Berlin to Zagreb, each arena carries a different acoustics and a different pressure. The final stage, as in previous years, returns to LANXESS Arena in Cologne, a handball amphitheatre for around 19,500 spectators. There the times are already fixed: on June 13 the semi-finals are played at 15:00 and 18:00, and on June 14 the third-place match at 15:00 and the final at 18:00. For the Croatian reader, this season also has a clear domestic station: HC Zagreb played European nights in Zagreb, against clubs that come with different budgets and different squad depth. Although the result was not merciful, that contrast best shows how ruthless the Champions League really is. It is enough to look at who finished below the line: Dinamo Bucuresti, Kolstad, Pelister and Zagreb. None of those clubs is an accidental participant, but in this competition even a solid team often looks like a team that is constantly a step and a half behind.

• Final stage: LANXESS Arena, Cologne, Germany, around 19,500 seats for handball
• Dates of the FINAL4 weekend: June 13 and 14, 2026
• Semi-finals: Saturday at 15:00 and 18:00
• Third-place match and final: Sunday at 15:00 and 18:00

The history that constantly steps onto the court

When speaking about the EHF Champions League, the past is not an ornament but an active participant. Barça are the most decorated club in the competition with 11 titles. THW Kiel have four. Ciudad Real and SC Magdeburg have three and two respectively in the era of modern handball, and among the winners are also Montpellier, Vardar, Kielce, Flensburg, Hamburg, Celje, San Antonio, Bidasoa and Cantabria. Magdeburg's 2025 victory over Berlin by 32:26 therefore immediately entered a broader context: the club confirmed that its 2023 title had not been a flash, but a sign of a return among the European aristocracy. Another historical line runs through individuals. In the club of a thousand and more European goals are names that define an era: Kiril Lazarov, Nikola Karabatić, Timur Dibirov and Mikkel Hansen. Dibirov is particularly interesting because Zagreb watched him as its own player, and the EHF historical table still keeps him among the greatest scorers the competition has had. Such numbers give additional depth to every new spring: when Gidsel today charges through a defence, he is attacking not only the opponent but also space in the history book.

Interesting details that give this season its face

One of the stronger stories of the group stage was the rise of Sporting from a club that until recently was viewed as a likeable challenger into a club that seriously threatens everyone. Francisco and Martim Costa turned the Lisbon side into a team that does not pretend bravery, but plays it. The second story is Berlin: for a long time that club had the reputation of a project that promises, and now it also has first place in the group and the competition's top scorer. The third is Barça, who finished Group B with 26 points and a goal difference of plus 110, which looks more like a demonstration of power than an ordinary qualification. There is also Magdeburg, whose season again moves between structure and drama. In this competition that club seems never to go through in a straight line. Even when it dominates, it looks as if every result has to pass through tension. That is also one of the secrets of its European appeal: Magdeburg does not conquer space by routine, but by pressure. And when such a team enters April as the defending champion, every future match automatically gains the taste of a replay of the final before the final itself. It is also interesting that the EHF has already confirmed a major reform of the competition, but only from the 2026/27 season. Then the men's Champions League moves to 24 clubs and a different system with six groups of four. In other words, the 2025/26 season is the last in the current format of 16 clubs and two large groups. And that is why it has additional documentary value: one chapter of the competition is ending, a chapter that produced many great nights, a recognizable rhythm of autumn and winter and a very clear path from the groups to Cologne.

What this season means from the Croatian perspective

For the Croatian public, the EHF Champions League is never just a neutral spectacle. Zagreb has been part of its history since the nineties, and even when it is not able to chase the highest reaches, participation in the competition itself keeps a window open toward the top of European handball. This season that window showed how high the level is. Zagreb finished eighth in Group B, but the opponents were Barça, Magdeburg, PSG, Plock, GOG, Szeged and Pelister. That is a schedule that forgives not even the smallest drop in concentration. Still, that is precisely where the meaning of this kind of competition lies. The Champions League is not merciful, but it is precise. It very quickly shows where you are, what your squad is worth, how long your rhythm lasts and whether you have in the back line a player who can take over a match when the system no longer helps. That is also why it is so attractive to watch: it does not hide the balance of power, but at the same time it regularly opens space for evenings in which the outsider hangs on long enough for the favorite to begin doubting. As the April return legs approach, the 2025/26 season stands exactly on that line where good handball stops being just a beautiful game and becomes a test of nerves. Berlin, Aalborg, Barça and Magdeburg are already waiting. Behind them come clubs that are still not even sure they will end the week in the same role. That is the best description of the Champions League: a competition in which the table brings order, but spring turns everything back into a fight.