Fresh faces and former champions make for fascinating group A

With a new coach at the wheel, Ulrik Kirkely, Györ aim to return to the EHF FINAL4 in Budapest at the business end of the season. Relying heavily on the same core that brought them there in the past three seasons, they will be one of the big favourites to seal one of the two quarter-finals berths in the group.

Finishing in one of the top two places is a priority for the Hungarian powerhouse, which has missed out on the trophy over the last few seasons. They have strengthened their squad with a top transfer – centre back Bruna de Paula Almeida, from Metz Handball. The Brazilian star will add more dynamism to their back line which has been found lacking in certain moments in recent times, meaning Györ have needed to rely more on their defence, which has perhaps taken a step backwards in the last few seasons.

One of Kirkely’s opponents will be his former club, Odense Håndbold, the runners-up in the Danish league last season, who have gone through a huge makeover this summer. Seven players have left and eight come in for the Danish side, as Ole Gustav Gjekstad, the coach who led Vipers Kristiansand to three straight titles in the last three seasons, takes over the hotseat.

Gjekstad will certainly need time, but his credentials are excellent, his experience is next to none and he will have four Norwegian players, plus a plethora of Danish stalwarts to ensure a smooth transition from the previous iteration of Odense.

Apart from Györ and Odense, one other side is a certain candidate for a place in the top two in the standings, as CSM Bucuresti eye a return to the EHF FINAL4 for the first time since 2018. The Romanian powerhouse swept their opponents in the domestic competitions last season, but after a strong start in the European top competition, they faltered in the spring and were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Team Esbjerg.

CSM have strengthened even further, bringing in the best line player at the EHF Excellence Awards this summer, Vilde Ingstad. They have also covered their right back position with two transfers, Laura Flippes and Monika Kobylinska, both coming from the French league. Meanwhile they can still count on the second all-time top scorer of the EHF Champions League Women, Cristina Neagu, who just turned 35 years old in August.

Ultimately, CSM look stronger than last season and anything less than a trip to Budapest for the EHF FINAL4 will be considered a failure for the Romanian champions.

The race for the other qualifying places looks to be exciting, with five other teams battling for the three places which ensure safe passage to the knockout phases of the European premium competition. WHC Buducnost BEMAX have infused their team with talent with the transfers of backs Noemi Hafra and Kalidiatou Niakate, giving them the look of a tough opponent, at least on their home court in Podgorica.

SG BBM Bietigheim surely learnt something from their experience last season, when they started with a five-game unbeaten run, only to falter in the second part of the group phase and miss out on qualifying entirely. As coach Markus Gaugisch bowed out to focus only on his role as Germany women’s national team coach, his place was filled in by Jakob Vestergaard, who returns to the EHF Champions League Women after seven years, when he was leading his soon-to-be opponents in the group, CSM Bucuresti.

The German champions will once again face Brest Bretagne Handball. The French team look to bounce back with an interesting mix of experience and youth after a disappointing campaign last season in the European top competition. Arguably, they relied too heavily on their defence when the attack failed to bring the goods.

Swedish side IK Sävehof make their comeback after a one-year hiatus, with the same attractive brand of fast-paced handball and a lot of young players from Sweden. Sävehof  are brimming with potential, but also have a strong leader in right wing Carmen Martin, the former captain of Spain women’s national team, who brings a great deal of experience to the squad.

Last, but not least, DVSC Schaeffler make a return to the EHF Champions League Women after a 13-year break. Their lack of experience could be their undoing at the end of the group phase; the third-placed team in the Hungarian league has plenty of young talent, like Greta Kacsor or Petra Fuzi-Tovizi, but lacks the experience of playing 14 high-level games in the space of just a few months.

Photos Jozo Cabraja/kolektiff; Odense Håndbold; Razvan Pasarica/SPORT PICTURES; Marco Wolf