The top four teams in Europe will face off in the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4, which takes place on Saturday and Sunday in the LANXESS Arena in Cologne for the 14th time in a row.

Reigning champions Barça, Polish powerhouse Barlinek Industria Kielce, German debutants SC Magdeburg and French giants Paris Saint-Germain Handball will be the four teams that will take the court, trying to secure the big prize, the title in the European premium competition.

While Barça, Magdeburg and Kielce each won titles, PSG will finally try to break their duck and seal the first title in history in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League after losing their final against Vardar in the 2016/17 season.

Moreover, this current iteration of Barça will become only the second team in history to seal three consecutive titles in the European premium competition, after the Spanish side already secured a three-peat between 1996 and 1998, when the current coach, Antonio Carlos Ortega, was featuring as a player for the Spanish powerhouse.

In the first semi-final, Barça will take on Magdeburg in a rematch of the previous two finals of the IHF Men’s Super Globe. Interestingly enough, Magdeburg won both matches, sealing the title, 33:28 in 2021 and 41:39, after extra time, in 2022.

However, Barça are undefeated this season, winning 15 matches and drawing another one on their way to the final, displaying some excellent performances throughout the whole season, like they did in the 2020/21 season when they won the title with 20 wins out of 20 matches.

Barça are also the team with the highest number of appearances in the EHF FINAL4, 11, while Barlinek Industria Kielce and PSG have both appeared six times in the competition, with Magdeburg finally making their long-awaited debut in the business end of the European top competition.

In the second semi-final, Kielce and PSG will rekindle their rivalry, with a huge prize on the line, a place in the big final. The Polish side, coached by Talant Dujshebaev, are one of the teams that made history at the EHF FINAL4, with both their finals ending on penalties.

In 2016, they won against Telekom Veszprém HC after cancelling a seven-goal lead for the Hungarian side, while last season, they lost against Barça. Dujshebaev can also become the second coach with five titles in the European premium competition, after Valero Rivera.

On the other side, PSG are hoping to win their first title after an excellent season, which saw Raúl González’s side being the top attack in the competition.

Barça’s Aleix Gómez needs only 11 goals over the two days of competition to become the all-time top goal scorer in the EHF FINAL4, having 58 goals now, 10 less than Mikkel Hansen and Kiril Lazarov.

The two semi-finals will take place on Saturday 17 June at 15:15 CEST and 18:00 CEST, with the bronze medal game and the big final scheduled for the same times on Sunday 18 June.