The new champion of EHF Champions League Men will be decided in a winners takes all tournament on 18 and 19 June in Cologne, Germany.

The 13th edition of the EHF FINAL4 features the top four powerhouses in Europe in this season, Barça, THW Kiel, Łomża Vive Kielce and Telekom Veszprém HC, who won the title 14 times in the past 30 years in the European premium competition.

The reigning champions, Barça, who won the trophy last season by winning all of the 20 games they played, had a roller-coaster season, dropping three games in the group phase, after the team came to grips with the style of their new coach Antonio Carlos Ortega.

However, the Spanish powerhouse, that won all their domestic titles under Ortega, mounted a serious challenge in the second part of the season, progressing to the EHF FINAL4 with a 60:53 aggregate win in the quarter-final against SG Flensburg-Handewitt, while also boasting the top scorer of the season as of now, French right back Dika Mem.

“It was not an easy season for us, but we are here, now, achieving our objective, which was to qualify for the EHF FINAL4. Now we only want to win the title,” said Ortega, who has already won the European premium competition six times as a player and aims to clinch his first trophy as a coach.

In the semi-final, Barça will face German powerhouse THW Kiel, who won the competition four times, most recently in 2020, when they beat the Spanish outfit in the final in Cologne, 33:28.

Kiel will, however, miss two influential players with centre back Sander Sagosen and line player Hendrik Pekeler, who suffered season-ending injuries in the last month and will face a long period on the sidelines.

The German side finished second in their group, after dropping three games, and qualified for the EHF FINAL4 after a nail-biting quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain Handball, securing a 63:62 aggregate win.

“We need our fans in Cologne to help replace Sander and Hendrik, who are injured. We will give everything in these two games to win the title,” said Kiel’s right back Harald Reinkind to the official website of the German side.

While Barça qualified for the 10th time for the EHF FINAL4 and Kiel are in Cologne for the sixth time, Polish outfit Łomża Vive Kielce earned their berth for the business end of the European premium competition only for the fifth time.

However, they have been on a stellar season, losing only four games, but clinching wins against top sides like PSG Handball, Barça or Telekom Veszprém HC.

In fact, Kielce, who are back at the EHF FINAL4 for the first time since 2019, had one of the toughest schedules in the competition, but enjoyed the largest win in the knockout phase of the EHF Champions League Men this season, 61:50, against Montpellier Handball in the quarter-finals.

They will face Telekom Veszprém HC in the semi-final on 18 June, in a rematch of one of the most epic matches in the history of the competition, the final of the 2015/16 season, when Kielce erased a nine-goal Veszprém lead to clinch the trophy in emphatic fashion, 39:38, after penalties.

“Those wins against the teams which also qualified for the EHF FINAL4 were quite a long time ago, some of them even in 2021. We are happy about how the season unfolded and it proves that we can put up a good fight against any other team for the highest possible goals we set for ourselves,” said Kielce’s right wing, Arkadiusz Moryto, to the official website of the competition, eurohandball.com.

On the other hand, Veszprém are the only side from the quartet qualified for the EHF FINAL4 that can win their first-ever title in the competition.

The Hungarian side qualified for the EHF FINAL4 for the seventh time – losing three finals in 2015, 2016 and 2019 – and will now look to avenge those painful memories, in the first season of Momir Ilic’s tenure as a head coach.

Ilic, who also played for Veszprém between 2013 and 2019 and scored seven goals in the infamous final lost against Kielce, has steered his team to Cologne, despite some tough moments during the season.

“I expect a very difficult match, because Kielce have great players in their roster, as displayed in the group phase, when they finished first, despite some very difficult opposition, one of the toughest in the history of this competition. I think the game is 50-50, both teams have chances,” said Veszprém’s right back, Jorge Maqueda, to the official website of the Hungarian team.

EHF FINAL4 Men 2022 schedule

18 June – Semi-finals
15:15 CEST M01: Telekom Veszprém HC (HUN) vs Łomża Vive Kielce (POL)
18:00 CEST M02: THW Kiel (GER) vs Barça (ESP)

19 June – Final and bronze-medal game
15:15 CEST Bronze-medal game: Losing team M01 vs Losing team M02
18:00 CEST Final: Winner M01 vs Winner M02

For more information on the EHF Champions League Men and the EHF FINAL4 Men 2022, visit eurohandball.com.