Three of the teams which participated last season in the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 - title holders SC Magdeburg, runners-up Füchse Berlin and the current title holders of the IHF Men’s Club World Championship, FC Barcelona – return to the LANXESS Arena in Cologne for the business end of the European premium club competition, and will be joined by the 2023/24 finalists, Aalborg Håndbold.

Only two of the four teams have won the Machineseeker EHF Champions League Men so far, with FC Barcelona being the record winners, having secured the trophy 11 times since the rebrand of the competition before the 1993/94 season, while SC Magdeburg clinched the trophy three times, in 2002, 2023 and 2025.

Both Füchse Berlin and Aalborg Håndbold have played for the title, losing the final, with Aalborg conceding the match against Barcelona, 30:31, in 2024, while Füchse lost, 26:32, against SC Magdeburg, in the previous season.

However, over the last five seasons, the title has been won by the same teams – Barcelona (2021, 2022, 2024) and Magdeburg (2023, 2025), and a final between the two sides is possible once again, with the two sides being on opposite sides of the draw.

The four teams finished on the top two places in each of the two groups in the preliminary round, with Füchse on 22 points (11 wins and three losses), one point more than Aalborg. Barcelona conceded a single loss in 14 matches, finishing first, with 26 points, three more than Magdeburg.

With an exodus starting for Barcelona this summer, when goalkeeper Emil Nielsen will leave for Veszprem and Dika Mem bolting to Füchse Berlin in the summer of 2027, the window for challenging for the current iteration of the Barcelona team is getting narrower and narrower.

The current IHF Men’s Club World Championship title holders have obviously had a well-rounded season, with a single loss in the Champions League, and hold a strong head-to-head record against Aalborg.

Barcelona won 13 out of the 14 mutual matches played, including two wins in the EHF FINAL4 - 36:23 in 2021 and 31:30 in 2024 – and are coming in red-hot form after winning the title and the Cup in Spain.

Aalborg, which boasts an experienced side, with the likes of Danish stars Thomas Arnoldsen, Mads Hoxer, Simon Hald, as well as Norwegian back Sander Sagosen, will be looking to capitalise on their good form, after winning the Danish title for the third time in a row, with two wins against Skanderborg Handbold.

The first semi-final is, however, the one that everyone will be closely looking. It’s the rematch of last season’s final, between the top two teams in Germany this season: the Bundesliga champions and title holders SC Magdeburg and the runners-up in the domestic league, Füchse Berlin.

The IHF Male Player of the Year in 2023, 2024 and 2025, Mathias Gidsel, who was the top scorer of the Bundesliga and is currently the top goal scorer of the Champions League, with 144 goals, will be looking to complete his cabinet, with one of the only major trophies currently missing.

Photo credit: Füchse Berlin / Jessica Borree

Magdeburg and Füchse have met twice this season in the Bundesliga, with both matches going in Magdeburg’s way: a 39:32 away win in September 2025 and a 35:33 home win in March 2026.

But with a level playing field in the LANXESS Arena, the host of the final weekend of the 2027 IHF Men’s World Championship, Magdeburg and Füchse will lock horns once again, in a head-to-head tie which went Füchse’s way only once in the last five matches.

SC Magdeburg also won another European final against Füchse, in the 2020/21 season of the EHF European League Men, but Gidsel will be coming in red-hot form, having scored 19 goals against Flensburg in the last match of the Bundesliga last week, finishing the season with 317 goals.

The two semi-finals will take place on Saturday, 13 June, at 15:00 and 18:00 CEST, with the bronze medal match and the final scheduled one day later, on Sunday, 14 June, at the same time.

The winner of the EHF Champions League Men will be Europe’s representative at the 2026 IHF Men’s Club World Championship, where FC Barcelona are already qualified as the title holders.