2025–26 EHF Champions League

EHF Champions League
2025–26
Tournament information
SportHandball
Dates10 September 2025–14 June 2026
Teams16
Websiteehfcl.com
Final positions
ChampionsSpain Barça
Runner-upGermany Füchse Berlin
Tournament statistics
Matches played132
Goals scored8282 (62.74 per match)
Attendance664,515 (5,034 per match)
MVPDomen Makuc
Top scorer(s)Mathias Gidsel
(161 goals)

The 2025–26 EHF Champions League was the 66th edition of Europe's premier club handball tournament, running from 10 September 2025 to 14 June 2026.

SC Magdeburg were the defending champions. Barça won their 12th title with a win Füchse Berlin.[1]

Format

The tournament ran using the same format as the previous three seasons. The competition began with a group stage featuring sixteen teams divided into two groups. Matches were played in a double round-robin system with home-and-away fixtures, fourteen in total for each team. In Groups A and B, the top two teams automatically qualified for the quarter-finals, with teams ranked third to sixth entered the playoff round.

The knockout stage included four rounds: the playoffs, quarter-finals, and a final-four tournament comprising two semifinals and the final. In the playoffs, eight teams were paired against each other in two-legged home-and-away matches (third-placed in group A played sixth-placed group B; fourth-placed group A played fifth-placed group B, etc.). The four aggregate winners of the playoffs advanced to the quarterfinals, joining the top-two teams of Groups A and B. The eight quarterfinalist teams were paired against each other in two-legged home-and-away matches, with the four aggregate winners qualifying to the final-four tournament.

In the final four tournament, the semifinals and the final were played as single matches at a pre-selected host venue.

Association ranking

Ten of the sixteen teams competing in the group stage were determined through the EHF association ranking for the 2024–25 season, based on the results of the three previous seasons.[2] The remaining six places will be awarded as wildcards.

  • Associations ranked 1–9 have their league champion qualified for the group stage and could have apply their league runner-up for a wildcard.
  • The best-ranked association in the EHF European League could have its league champion and runner-up qualify for the group stage, but could not apply for a wildcard.
  • Associations ranked outside the top nine could have only had their league champion apply for a wildcard.

Participating teams

The first ten teams were revealed on 18 June 2025.[4] The full list was announced on 24 June 2025.[5]

Croatia RK Zagreb (1st) Denmark Aalborg Håndbold (1st) Spain Barcelona (1st) France Paris Saint-Germain (1st)
Germany Füchse Berlin (1st) Germany SC Magdeburg (2nd) Hungary One Veszprém (1st) Poland Orlen Wisła Płock (1st)
Portugal Sporting CP (1st) Romania CS Dinamo București (1st) Denmark GOG Håndbold (2nd) WC France HBC Nantes (2nd) WC
Hungary OTP Bank – Pick Szeged (2nd) WC North Macedonia RK Eurofarm Pelister (1st) WC Norway Kolstad Håndball (2nd) WC Poland Industria Kielce (2nd) WC
  • WC Accepted wildcards

Rejected wildcards

Portugal FC Porto (2nd) Slovenia RD LL Grosist Slovan (1st) Switzerland Kadetten Schaffhausen (1st)

Group stage

Location of teams of the 2025–26 EHF Champions League group stage.
Red: Group A; Blue: Group B.

The 16 teams were drawn into two groups of eight. Teams from the same national association could not be drawn into the same group. The draw took place on 27 June 2025.[5][6]

In the group stage, teams were ranked according to points (2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). After completion of the group stage, if two or more teams have scored the same number of points, the ranking will be determined as follows:

  1. Highest number of points in matches between the teams directly involved;
  2. Superior goal difference in matches between the teams directly involved;
  3. Highest number of goals scored in matches between the teams directly involved;
  4. Superior goal difference in all matches of the group;
  5. Highest number of plus goals in all matches of the group;
  6. Drawing of Lots

A total of 11 national associations were represented in the group stage. GOG Håndbold came back after a year absence.

Group A

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification BER AAL KIE NAN VES SPO BUC KOL
1 Germany Füchse Berlin 14 11 0 3 470 433 +37 22 Quarterfinals — 31–28 31–33 34–37 38–34 33–29 32–31 38–27
2 Denmark Aalborg Håndbold 14 10 1 3 457 407 +50 21 31–35 — 34–27 31–24 32–28 35–30 34–28 36–24
3 Poland Industria Kielce 14 8 1 5 456 451 +5 17 Playoffs 32–37 32–32 — 27–35 36–35 39–33 34–32 38–27
4 France HBC Nantes 14 8 0 6 456 416 +40 16 34–40 27–28 29–33 — 33–31 38–27 35–28 39–24
5 Hungary One Veszprém 14 7 0 7 471 449 +22 14[a] 31–32 33–38 35–33 30–25 — 32–31 35–28 42–34
6 Portugal Sporting CP 14 7 0 7 465 476 −11 14[a] 37–38 35–33 41–37 28–39 33–32 — 30–29 44–31
7 Romania CS Dinamo București 14 2 0 12 395 430 −35 4 21–27 27–30 24–28 29–28 27–30 30–33 — 33–23
8 Norway Kolstad Håndball 14 2 0 12 386 494 −108 4 28–24 26–35 26–27 26–33 29–43 30–34 31–28 —
Source: EHF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
Notes:
  1. 1 2 One Veszprém 64–64 Sporting CP. Veszprém ranked fifth because of the better overall goal difference.

Group B

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification BAR MAG PLO PAR GOG SZE PEL ZAG
1 Spain Barça 14 13 0 1 492 382 +110 26 Quarterfinals — 21–22 30–24 38–33 37–32 31–28 47–27 46–26
2 Germany SC Magdeburg 14 11 1 2 457 408 +49 23 29–36 — 27–26 37–31 37–30 40–32 36–26 27–22
3 Poland Orlen Wisła Płock 14 8 2 4 424 410 +14 18 Playoffs 24–34 29–29 — 35–32 34–35 30–30 36–25 30–27
4 France Paris Saint-Germain 14 6 1 7 446 436 +10 13[a] 27–30 34–26 29–30 — 34–36 29–28 33–27 35–32
5 Denmark GOG Håndbold 14 6 1 7 443 468 −25 13[a] 28–41 30–39 28–30 28–31 — 31–36 28–28 33–28
6 Hungary OTP Bank – Pick Szeged 14 5 1 8 428 424 +4 11 27–35 30–34 33–34 31–29 34–37 — 35–20 32–26
7 North Macedonia RK Eurofarm Pelister 14 2 2 10 369 447 −78 6 30–34 26–31 25–28 34–34 28–31 25–24 — 25–23
8 Croatia RK Zagreb 14 1 0 13 375 459 −84 2 25–32 35–43 26–34 24–35 31–36 23–28 27–23 —
Source: EHF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
Notes:
  1. 1 2 Paris Saint-Germain 65–64 GOG Håndbold

Knockout stage

Playoffs

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
OTP Bank – Pick Szeged Hungary 58–55 Poland Industria Kielce 26–23 32–32
Sporting CP Portugal 60–57 Poland Orlen Wisła Płock 33–29 27–28
GOG Håndbold Denmark 61–74 France HBC Nantes 33–34 28–40
One Veszprém Hungary 67–59 France Paris Saint-Germain 32–24 35–35

Quarterfinals

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
One Veszprém Hungary 65–65
(3–4 p)		 Germany Füchse Berlin 35–34 30–31
HBC Nantes France 51–63 Spain Barça 30–32 21–31
Sporting CP Portugal 67–68 Denmark Aalborg Håndbold 31–31 36–37
OTP Bank – Pick Szeged Hungary 65–80 Germany SC Magdeburg 28–35 37–45

Final four

The final four was held at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany on 13 and 14 June 2026.

Bracket

 
Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
13 June
 
 
Denmark Aalborg Håndbold32
 
14 June
 
Spain Barça (ET)37
 
Spain Barça37
 
13 June
 
Germany Füchse Berlin34
 
Germany SC Magdeburg35
 
 
Germany Füchse Berlin40
 
Third place
 
 
14 June
 
 
Denmark Aalborg Håndbold26
 
 
Germany SC Magdeburg32

Final

14 June 2026
18:00		 Barça Spain 37–34 Germany Füchse Berlin Lanxess Arena, Cologne
Attendance: 20,122
Referees: Jørum, Kleven (NOR)
Frade 7 (20–16) Gidsel 8
1×Yellow card 2×number 2 in light blue rounded square 1×Red card Report 2×Yellow card 2×number 2 in light blue rounded square 1×Red card

Top goalscorers

Rank Player Club Goals[7]
1 Denmark Mathias Gidsel Germany Füchse Berlin 161
2 Portugal Francisco Costa Portugal Sporting CP 136
3 France Elohim Prandi France Paris Saint-Germain 120
4 Spain Aleix Gómez Spain Barcelona 117
5 Denmark Frederik Bjerre Denmark GOG Håndbold 115
6 Portugal Martim Costa Portugal Sporting CP 112
7 France Melvyn Richardson Poland Orlen Wisła Płock 103
8 Denmark Thomas Arnoldsen Denmark Aalborg Håndbold 99
Iceland Ómar Ingi Magnússon Germany SC Magdeburg
10 Denmark Lasse Andersson Germany Füchse Berlin 97

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Barça overcome Füchse resistance to win 12th title". EHF. 14 June 2026.
  2. ↑ "Place distribution released for 2025/26 season". EHF.
  3. ↑ "EHF Club Competitions 2025/26" (PDF). eurohandball.com. 2 August 2024. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
  4. ↑ "19 clubs registered for Machineseeker EHF Champions League 2025/26". eurohandball.com. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  5. 1 2 "EHF confirms upgrades to EHF Champions League". eurohandball.com. 24 June 2025. Retrieved 24 June 2025.
  6. ↑ "EHF Champions League 2025/26 takes shape after group phase draws". EHF. 27 June 2025.
  7. ↑ "Top Scorers". eurohandball.com. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
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