One of Europe’s most competitive club competitions has reached the main part of the season, with the Men’s EHF Cup set to begin the group phase this weekend. A total of eight nations are represented by the 16 clubs that will contest the group matches: Denmark, Spain, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia. 

For some teams in the group phase, their EHF Cup campaign began in the second round of qualification matches, making it a long journey from those games in early October 2019 to the first group matches. The majority of the group phase participants started in round three, played in mid to late November. 

The group phase will see each team face their group rivals twice, once at home and once away. The first match will be played in Hungary on Saturday 8 February, when Grundfos Tatabanya KC host Spanish club BM Logroño La Rioja. The remaining teams will begin the group phase on Sunday 9 February. 

From the group phase, the top two sides in each group will proceed to the quarter-finals, which will take place from 2 to 10 May. The semi-finals and finals will be played over one weekend in Berlin, on 23 and 24 May. All matches are streamed live on ehfTV.com.

After the qualification stages, the top scorer of the competition so far is Danish club TTH Holstebro’s Magnus Bramming, who finished the 2018/19 season with that individual title. With his 100 goals last season, Bramming set an all-time record for most scored in one EHF Cup season. So far in 2019/20, he has 22 goals in two matches. 

Another notable name near the top of the scorer ranking in the EHF Cup is Egyptian wing Mohamed Sanad, with 18 goals placing him in third position. Sanad was named the All-star Team right wing at the 2020 CAHB Men's African Championship in January, which Egypt won. 

More information on the Men’s EHF Cup is available on the official competition website. 

PHOTO: OIF ARENDAL