The group phase of the EHF Champions League Women concluded on 12 February after 112 matches were played, with four teams advancing directly to the quarter-finals, while eight others made the play-offs in a season full of twists and turns.

The 16 teams, divided into two groups of eight, produced an entertaining group phase over the last six months with plenty of surprises on the way, leaving fans breathless until the final seconds of the last round.

In Group A, reigning champions Vipers Kristiansand secured first place in the group, winning 23 of the possible 28 points, but only managed to clinch the position after the last round, as CSM Bucuresti dropped their rhythm unexpectedly to win only one of the last four possible points.

The Romanian powerhouse took the lead after securing a 27:24 home win against Vipers, but failed to finish on a high. After a 30:30 draw against Brest Bretagne Handball in the penultimate round, CSM lost their last match against Krim (26:28), enabling the reigning champions to leapfrog them.

With 11 wins, one draw and two losses, Vipers, who can become only the second team in history to win three titles in a row, clinched first place in the group. At the same time, CSM finished second, one point behind, despite boasting their best-ever start in the European premium competition, now facing a more difficult route to their first EHF FINAL4 berth since the 2018/19 season.

With their 28:26 win over CSM on Sunday, Krim Mercator Ljubljana jumped from the seventh place to the fifth place in the final standings, earning a play-offs berth, thanks to their head-to-head record against Brest and SG BBM Bietigheim, with the German side missing out on qualifying for the knockout phase of the competition.

Bietigheim, who had a 64-match unbeaten streak in all competitions, started the group phase of the EHF Champions League Women with a five-match unbeaten streak, but failed to win any of their next eight matches. Despite tying the record for the number of goals scored in a single match in their last match against DHK Baník Most (47:25), Bietigheim missed out on a play-offs berth, due to an inferior goal difference (-4) than Brest (0) in the three-way tie, which also saw Krim finish on 12 points.

Metz Handball was the team with the best record in the group phase, dropping only three points on their way to winning Group B, an excellent performance from the French champions, who delivered their best-ever start in the European premium competition, displaying the second-best defence and conceding only 25.1 goals per match.

Metz also stopped a seven-year unbeaten streak at home for Györi Audi ETO KC. Still, the Hungarian powerhouse also made it to the quarter-finals after a hard-fought 29:28 win against Team Esbjerg in the last round, sealing the second place in the standings, with Esbjerg finishing third.

Esbjerg also boast the top scorer of the competition after 14 matches, left back Henny Reistad, the All-Star left back at the 2021 IHF Women’s World Championship, who has scored 107 goals, two more than CSM’s left back Cristina Neagu.

Neagu became only the third player in history to hit the 1000-goal milestone in the EHF Champions League Women, now boasting a total of 1015 goals in the competition, only one goal shy of the previous record set by Anita Görbicz.

The all-time goal scorer of the competition is now Montenegro’s right wing Jovanka Radičević, who also broke the 1000-goal milestone this season and has scored 1056 goals in her career in the European premium competition.

The quarter-finals will be played over two legs, on 18 and 19 March and 25 and 26 March respectively, with the winners progressing to the quarter-finals, where the best two sides from each group await them.

The quarter-finals are due to be played on 29 and 30 April and 6 and 7 May, as the EHF FINAL4 is hosted again by Budapest in the MVM Dome on 3 and 4 June.

Play-offs schedule

M1: Storhamar Håndball Elite (NOR) vs Odense Håndbold (DEN)
M2: Brest Bretagne Handball (FRA) vs Team Esbjerg (DEN)
M3: WHC Buducnost Bemax (MNE) vs FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria (HUN)
M4: Krim Mercator Ljubljana (SLO) vs Rapid Bucuresti (ROU)

Quarter-finals schedule

Winner M1 vs Györi Audi ETO KC (HUN)
Winner M2 vs CSM Bucuresti (ROU)
Winner M3 vs Metz Handball (FRA)
Winner M4 vs Vipers Kristiansand (NOR)

Photo: Loic Wacziak