After a rest day, the 2024 IHF Men’s Club World Championship returns in full fledge in the New Administrative Capital Hall in Egypt, with eight sides taking the court.

The two semi-finals will be played on Tuesday, with a 100% European derby between Barcelona and Veszprem headlining the day, while in the other semi-final, the reigning champions, SC Magdeburg, meet hosts Al-Ahly.

SEMI-FINALS

• 17:00 EEST FC Barcelona (ESP) vs Veszprem HC (HUN)
• 20:00 EEST SC Magdeburg (GER) vs Al-Ahly (EGY) 

The first semi-final of the 2024 IHF Men’s Club World Championship will see familiar faces on opposite sides of the court, as Xavi Pascual, Veszprem’s coach, has won the title five times with Barcelona, a team which he coached between 2009 and 2021.

Both sides have won their group in the competition, but were the second and third best teams in the rankings, as both Veszprem and Barcelona had two wins and four points, with the Spanish side boasting a +38 goal difference and Veszprem had a +33 goal difference.

The two sides also have the second and third best attacks in the competition, with 84 and 77 goals respectively, while the Hungarian side has conceded the lowest number of goals, 43, only three more than Barcelona.

There are also several players which will see their former teammates, with Veszprem’s Luka Cindric and Ludovic Fabregas having both played for Barcelona, while Pascual knows his former side all too well, having coached plenty of the Spanish side’s current roster in his time.

Nevertheless, the battle looks to be quite balanced, as the two sides met six times in the last three years in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League, with Barcelona taking four wins as opposed to Veszprem’s two, but none of the six matches produced less than 57 goals, with an average of 66.3 goals scored per match between Veszprem and Barcelona.

While Veszprem have played the final of the IHF Men’s Club World Championship only once, in 2015, Barcelona have made it to the final seven times in nine appearances, having never finished lower than the third place. However, Barcelona have not win the trophy since 2019 and aim to end that drought.

In the second semi-final, hosts Al-Ahly, the best second-placed team in the preliminary round, will meet SC Magdeburg, the team which had the best performance in the first part of the competition, with the best goal difference, +43, and the best attack, scoring 92 goals so far.

However, Magdeburg have shown cracks in their armour this season, conceding losses in the German Supercup, in the German Bundesliga and in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League. They were also not convincing in the match against Khaleej Club, sealing their 35:28 win only after forcing the Saudi side’s hand in the last 10 minutes.

The German side have the top two scorers of the competition, wings Isak Persson (19 goals) and Lukas Mertens (16 goals), but will face a motivated Al-Ahly side, which are still looking to improve their best finish in the competition, which was the second place, in 2007.

It is the second time in third editions when Al-Ahly make the semi-finals, after finishing fourth in 2023, but their loss against FC Barcelona, 23:31 in the last match of the preliminary round, left no question about their weaknesses, as the Egyptian side will look to improve, especially in attack, where they turned the ball over too many times.

The two sides also met in the semi-finals in the 2022 edition, when Magdeburg, which are now riding a 14-match winning streak at the IHF Men’s Club World Championship, clinched a 36:28 win.

PLACEMENT MATCHES

• 11:00 EEST Khaleej Club (KSA) vs Handebol Taubate (BRA)
• 14:00 EEST California Eagles (USA) vs Zamalek SC (EGY)

With the four semi-finalists decided after the preliminary round, the five remaining teams will compete in the placement round, where they face teams from the other two preliminary round groups.

In the first match, Khaleej Club, which had a fantastic performance in the first part of the competition, will be aiming to build on their success and secure their best-ever finish at the IHF Men’s Club World Championship, after ending sixth in the last two editions.

Khaleej will face a tough challenge from Handebol Taubate, the team which finished on the last place in Group A, still searching for their maiden win. However, Taubate have shown promising signs of life in the first match against Zamalek, when they cut a 16-goal deficit to only five goals, conceding a five-goal loss.

In the other match of the day, Zamalek SC will be favoured against the California Eagles, but the American side were the side with the largest number of goals scored, 46, between the sides which finished on the last place in their groups.

The Egyptian side conceded a loss against Veszprem, but stayed close to their opponents, 27:34, while the Eagles have lost by 23 goals against Khaleej and by 36 goals against Magdeburg, collapsing after good starts against their two opponents.