MOTW SUMMARY: Barça record biggest win of 2024/25 versus Aalborg

• Barça took a clear win, 35:27, against Aalborg Håndbold in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League 2024/25 round 4 Match of the Week
• also on Thursday, Veszprém and Nantes recorded big wins over Dinamo and Kolstad, while Füchse Berlin and Kielce secured narrow victories against Plock and Magdeburg. Read about all of Thursday's games
• recap Wednesday's matches, which saw comfortable victories for PSG and Szeged while Eurofarm Pelister drew with Sporting CP
• see the group standings after round 4 here
• Courtney Gahan reported; all photos courtesy of Barça

Thursday 10 October

22:55

That brings us to an end of the live blog coverage of the round 4 Match of the Week! I leave you with the match highlights. 

Until next week! Goodnight. 

22:47

Taking a quick look at the other courts where action unfolded tonight, we saw both decisive victories and the narrowest of results. 

For Veszprém and HBC Nantes, the victories were decisive, as they beat Dinamo Bucuresti and Kolstad, respectively. Meanwhile, two German clubs were involved in matches with late decisions and one-goal score lines — Magdeburg lost to Kielce while Füchse Berlin overcame Plock. 

Recap all the action from tonight's games, including Barça's MOTW win, in the review below. 

22:27

A whopping 17 saves at a rate of 38.64 per cent earn Barça goalkeeper Emil Nielsen the Player of the Match award. 

Overall this season, Nielsen sits second on the ranking of most saves behind Füchse Berlin's Dejan Milosavljev, but Nielsen has the highest rate out of all goalkeeper who have faced upwards of 100 shots. 

Check out more of the stats for the season overall here. 

20:34

Into the final minutes before the opening whistle now! The teams have finished their warm-up and left the court ready to return for game time. 

Tune in now on EHFTV. 

20:21

Diving into some key facts about the MOTW: Barça enter the game on the maximum six points after three wins in the season. Prior to round 4, they sat alone on top of the group B table. Following Szeged's win on Wednesday, the Hungarian side joined Barça on six points, but the Spanish team have the chance to take a fourth victory tonight and keep their group leader status. 

Aalborg count three points in their tally, which puts them fourth on the table ahead of the MOTW. They opened the season with a great win over HBC Nantes, 38:31, before losing to Zagreb, 23:31, and drawing against Magdeburg, 33:33. 

Barça have beaten Kolstad, Szeged and Kielce so far, with the victory over Szeged the narrowest at 31:30.  

This will be the 13th time the sides have faced each other, and Barça have won all previous 12 confrontations — including the final in both 2024 and 2021. 

20:10

Since 9 June this year, Barça coach Carlos Ortega has sat alone at the top of the ranking of most trophies won in the EHF Champions League Men. Ortega won six trophies as a player and has now taken two as coach, with the first coming in 2022 in his first season in charge of the club. All eight were with Barça. 

In our MOTW feature this week, Ortega looks at the season so far, where Barça are now following a fourth-place finish at the IHF Club World Championship last week and what he expects of the clash against Aalborg.

20:00

Good evening and welcome back to the Machineseeker EHF Champions League Match of the Week! Courtney Gahan here to take you through it.

After a two-week break, we are rewarded with a big game to look forward to: A rematch of last season's final, when Barça beat Aalborg by just one goal, clinching their 11th trophy in the competition. 

If you haven't seen it yet, you have just enough time before throw-off to check out the Dare to Rise: Last Shot, the documentary feature on the Barça and Aalborg's journey to the final last season, culminating in the nail-biting title-deciding game in Cologne. 

Find it on the Home of Handball YouTube page or watch directly below!