Many top transfers and two new coaches provide group B thrills

The first round on 13/14 September serves two mouth-watering matches, as former Champions League winners Montpellier Handball and record winners Barça face off in France, while defending champions Magdeburg take on bolstered four-time finalists Telekom Veszprém.

Those four teams look like the favourites in group B – but they definitely will be challenged by the remaining opponents, spearheaded by Orlen Wisla Plock.

After becoming the first team to beat Barça in the Champions League after a run of 25 unbeaten matches – in the 2023 semi-final after extra-time – SC Magdeburg can feel the predators’ breaths on their necks, and injury woes are still causing trouble.

TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 MVP Gisli Kristjansson is set to be out for the next six months after his shoulder injury in the semi-final, and his Icelandic countryman Ómar Ingi Magnusson is still ruled out, too. And SCM lost one iconic star from the previous year, as Kay Smits joined SG Flensburg-Handewitt. New arrival Felix Claar from Aalborg Håndbold will, in his first Champions League match for Magdeburg, immediately face his Swedish and former club teammate Lukas Sandell who joined Veszprém.

The Hungarian record champions have again strengthened their squad, including the top transfer of this summer: French Olympic and world champion as well as three-time Champions League winner Ludovic Fabregas arrived from their group phase opponents Barça.

After missing the 2023 edition of the EHF FINAL4, eliminated by eventual finalists Kielce in the quarter-finals, the ticket to Cologne is again the major goal of the season for head coach Momir Ilic and his men. And Veszprém will face the two teams to whom they lost their first two Champions League finals: Magdeburg in 2002 and Barça in 2015.

As at Magdeburg, where Sergey Hernandez from Sporting CP switched clubs with Mike Jensen, Veszprém have a change of goalkeepers: Ignacio Biosca (from Plock) replaces Vladimir Cupara who joined Dinamo Bucuresti.

Barça, record winners with 10 trophies and on top of the Champions League all-time-ranking, have lost another top player besides Fabregas: centre back Luka Cindric increased the number of former Barça players at Dinamo Bucuresti. But still, and as usual, winning the trophy is the main goal of the Catalan side.

After making it to the EHF Finals in the EHF European League Men last year, 2003 and 2018 champions Montpellier are back in the top-flight competition, of course coached by legendary Patrice Canayer who has his 30th season as coach of the same club ahead of him. And again Canayer and Montpellier have to cope with several stars leaving the team, including wing Hugo Descat who moved to group phase opponents Veszprém and Julien Bos who transferred to Nantes.

The dark horse in this group could be Orlen Wisla Plock. Despite losing goalkeeper Biosca and shooter Sergei Mark Kosorotov to Veszprém, the Polish runners-up and cup winners managed to add experience to their squad by signing goalkeeper Mirko Alilović from Szeged and Champions League winner Miha Zarabec from Kiel. In the previous season, Plock almost became the stumbling block for would-be winners Magdeburg in the quarter-finals, having previously eliminated Nantes in the play-offs.

Two teams from group B changed their coaches: Nicolej Krickau left GOG to join SG Flensburg-Handewitt and was replaced by Ian Marco Fog, while Portuguese legend Carlos Resende took over from FC Porto’s previous mastermind Magnus Andersson. Krickau was not the only one from GOG arriving at Flensburg, as EHF Excellence Award winner Simon Pytlick and line player Lukas Jørgensen also start on the other side of the Danish-German border after becoming Danish champions again by beating Aalborg in the finals.

In contrast to GOG, Resende can work with almost the same squad as in the previous season. Porto and 2005 Champions League winners RK Celje Pivovarna Laško both have the goal of proceeding to the knock-out stage. As with GOG, Celje have the same regular fate of having to replace their top stars: Aleks Vlah, top scorer of the 2022/23 Champions League group phase, joined Aalborg in Denmark; Gal Marguc – brother of Veszprém’s wing Gasper – transferred to Croatian side RK Nexe; and youngster Tilen Strmljan arrived at German club Hanover.

Photos © Franziska Gora/Jan Huebner; Victor Salgado; Victor Sousa