2015–16 EHF Champions League

EHF Champions League

2015–16
Tournament information
Sport	Handball
Dates	5 September 2015–29 May 2016
Teams	28 (group stage) 31 (total)
Website	ehfcl.com
Tournament statistics
Matches played	148
Goals scored	8215 (55.51 per match)
Attendance	528,033 (3,568 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Mikkel Hansen (DEN) (82 goals)[1]
← 2014–15

The 2015–16 EHF Champions League is the 56th edition of Europe's premier club handball tournament and the 23rd edition under the current EHF Champions League format. FC Barcelona is the defending champion.

Overview

Team allocation

Twenty-seven teams are directly qualified for the group stage.^[2]

Groups A/B
Zagreb	KIF Kolding København	Montpellier	Paris Saint-Germain
Rhein-Neckar Löwen	Flensburg-Handewitt	THW Kiel	Pick Szeged
MVM Veszprém	Vardar	Vive Targi Kielce	Wisła Płock
Celje	BarcelonaTH	IFK Kristianstad	Beşiktaş
Groups C/D
Meshkov Brest	Skjern Håndbold	Metalurg Skopje	Porto
HC Baia Mare	Chekhovskiye Medvedi	Vojvodina	Tatran Prešov
Logroño	Kadetten Schaffhausen	Motor Zaporozhye
Qualification tournament
Alpla HC Hard	RK Banja Luka	Limburg Lions	Elverum Håndball

• ^{TH = Title holders}

Competition format

In March 2014, EHF introduced a new competition format.^[3]

Twenty-eight teams will participate in the competition, divided in four groups. Groups A and B will be played with eight teams each, in a round robin, home and away format. The top team in each group will qualify directly for the quarter-finals, the bottom two in each group drop out of the competition and the remaining 10 teams qualify for the first knock-out phase.

In groups C and D, six teams will play in each group in a round robin format, playing both home and away. The top two teams in each group will then meet in a ‘semi-final’ play-off, with the two winners going through to the first knock-out phase. The remaining teams drop out of the competition.

Knock-out Phase 1 (Last 12)

12 teams will play home and away in the first knock-out phase, with the 10 teams qualified from groups A and B and the two teams qualified from groups C and D.

Knock-out Phase 2 (Quarterfinals)

The six winners of the matches in the first knock-out phase will join with the winners of groups A and B to play home and away for the right to play in the VELUX EHF FINAL4.

Final four

The culmination of the season, the VELUX EHF FINAL4, will continue in its existing format, with the four top teams from the competition competing for the title.

Round and draw dates

All draws held at the European Handball Federation headquarters in Vienna, Austria.^[4]

Qualification stage

There was no draw held. The four teams played a semifinal and final to determine the last participant. Matches were played on 5 and 6 September 2015.^[4][5] RK Banja Luka organized the tournament.^[6]

Bracket

	Semifinals				Final
	5 September 2015
	Elverum Håndball	35
					6 September 2015
	Limburg Lions	30
					Elverum Håndball	28
	5 September 2015
					Alpla HC Hard	25
	Alpla HC Hard	35
	RK Banja Luka	33
					Third place
					6 September 2015
					Limburg Lions	33
					RK Banja Luka	29

All times are local (UTC+2).

Semifinals

5 September 2015 17:30	Elverum Håndball	35–30	Limburg Lions	Sportska dvorana Borik, Banja Luka Attendance: 500 Referees: Gasmi, Gasmi (FRA)
	Burud 9	(14–15)	Baart, Steins 7
	3× 3×	Report	4× 3×

5 September 2015 20:00	Alpla HC Hard	35–33	RK Banja Luka	Sportska dvorana Borik, Banja Luka Attendance: 3,500 Referees: Baranowski, Lemanowicz (POL)
	Zeiner 8	(17–14)	Trivundža 13
	7× 3× 1×	Report	11× 3× 1×

Third place game

6 September 2015 17:30	Limburg Lions	33–29	RK Banja Luka	Sportska dvorana Borik, Banja Luka Attendance: 400 Referees: Gasmi, Gasmi (FRA)
	Heijnen 7	(16–14)	Janković 8
	5× 3×	Report	3× 3×

Final

6 September 2015 20:00	Elverum Håndball	28–25	Alpla HC Hard	Sportska dvorana Borik, Banja Luka Attendance: 400 Referees: Baranowski, Lemanowicz (POL)
	Stegavik 10	(15–11)	Schlinger 8
	4× 3×	Report	4× 2×

Group stage

Kiel

RN Löwen

Flensburg

Barcelona

Logroño

PSG

Montpellier

Veszprém

Szeged

KIF

Skjern

Celje

Kielce

Płock

Vardar

Metalurg

Kristianstad

Brest

Kadetten

Minaur

Zagreb

Porto

Chekhov

Motor

Vojvodina

Tatran

Elverum

Beşiktaş

Location of teams of the 2014–15 EHF Champions League group stage.
Red: Group A; Blue: Group B; Green: Group C; Yellow: Group D.

The draw for the group stage was held on 26 June 2015, 20:00 CEST, in the Vienna city centre.^[4][7] The 28 teams were drawn into four groups, two containing eight teams (Groups A and B) and two containing six teams (Groups C and D).^[4] The only restriction was that teams from the same national association could not face each other in the same group. Since Germany qualified three teams, the lowest seeded side (Flensburg-Handewitt) had necessarily to be drawn with one of the other two.^[8]

In each group, teams play against each other in a double round-robin format, with home and away matches. The matchdays are 16–20 September, 23–27 September, 30 September–4 October, 7–11 October, 14–18 October, 21–25 October, 11–15 November, 18–22 November, 25–29 November and 2–6 December 2015. For Groups A and B, additional matchdays include 10–14 February, 17–21 February, 24–28 February and 2–6 March 2016.^[9]

After completion of the group stage matches, the teams advancing to the knockout stage are determined in the following manner:

• Groups A and B – the top team qualifies directly for the quarter-finals, and the five teams ranked 2nd–6th advance to the first knockout round.
• Groups C and D – the top two teams from both groups contest a playoff to determine the last two sides joining the 10 teams from Groups A and B in the first knockout round.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		FLE	PAR	VES	KIE	ZAG	PLO	CEL	BES
1	Flensburg-Handewitt (T)	11	9	0	2	339	290	+49	18	Advance to quarter-finals		—	39–32	27 Feb	37–27	28–27	27–25	30–20	33–25
2	Paris Saint-Germain (T)	11	9	0	2	340	307	+33	18	Advance to first knockout round		6 Mar	—	29–27	37–30	34–23	29–24	32–27	20 Feb
3	MVM Veszprém (T)	11	8	1	2	319	286	+33	17			28–24	28–20	—	29–27	21 Feb	5 Mar	34–28	33–25
4	THW Kiel (A)	11	5	1	5	311	308	+3	11			27–23	26–30	25–24	—	3 Mar	21 Feb	35–32	32–21
5	Zagreb (X)	11	4	1	6	280	286	−6	9			23–30	23–25	20–21	29–22	—	29–25	27 Feb	32–26
6	Wisła Płock (X)	11	3	2	6	301	317	−16	8			30–34	27 Feb	27–27	23–37	23–23	—	26–31	32–26
7	Celje (X)	11	2	1	8	293	315	−22	5	Eliminated		20 Feb	30–32	27–30	23–23	20–21	25–28	—	5 Mar
8	Beşiktaş (X)	11	1	0	10	298	372	−74	2			26–34	30–40	34–38	24 Feb	32–30	29–38	24–30	—

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		BAR	SZE	KIE	RNL	VAR	MON	KRI	KOL
1	Barcelona (T)	11	8	1	2	336	303	+33	17	Advance to quarter-finals		—	21 Feb	31–33	5 Mar	31–30	37–27	34–32	28–25
2	Pick Szeged (T)	11	7	1	3	324	302	+22	15	Advance to first knockout round		28–30	—	31–30	30–24	28 Feb	28–27	35–28	34–23
3	Vive Targi Kielce (T)	11	6	3	2	338	317	+21	15			30–30	6 Mar	—	20 Feb	23–20	30–23	35–27	33–31
4	Rhein-Neckar Löwen (T)	11	7	1	3	298	279	+19	15			22–21	30–25	32–32	—	28–27	25–21	29–20	28 Feb
5	Vardar (T)	11	6	0	5	313	282	+31	12			25–27	27–23	34–24	25–19	—	5 Mar	20 Feb	34–24
6	Montpellier (X)	11	3	1	7	392	320	+72	7			23–31	29–29	28 Feb	28–30	25–30	—	30–26	30–25
7	IFK Kristianstad (X)	11	2	1	8	319	347	−28	5	Eliminated		27 Feb	32–34	35–35	32–29	25–30	29–30	—	33–26
8	KIF Kolding København (X)	11	1	0	10	280	349	−69	2			28–36	22–27	25–33	18–30	33–31	21 Feb	6 Mar	—

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		BRE	LOG	POR	MED	VOJ	PRE
1	Meshkov Brest	10	8	0	2	321	264	+57	16	Advanced to playoffs		—	31–33	34–27	32–26	34–22	32–26
2	Logroño	10	7	0	3	298	270	+28	14[lower-alpha 1]			28–32	—	30–23	30–26	31–22	37–29
3	Porto	10	7	0	3	296	265	+31	14[lower-alpha 1]			29–28	35–31	—	31–27	37–15	33–23
4	Chekhovskiye Medvedi	10	4	0	6	271	292	−21	8			27–33	27–26	30–29	—	34–30	29–28
5	Vojvodina	10	2	0	8	241	297	−56	4[lower-alpha 2]			26–35	26–31	23–27	26–24	—	24–25
6	Tatran Prešov	10	2	0	8	242	277	−35	4[lower-alpha 2]			20–30	19–21	24–25	27–21	19–27	—

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		ZAP	SKJ	SCH	HCM	ELV	MET
1	Motor Zaporozhye	10	7	1	2	296	277	+19	15	Advanced to playoffs		—	31–26	31–23	25–23	33–30	30–24
2	Skjern Håndbold	10	6	2	2	293	270	+23	14			36–36	—	25–29	32–28	34–29	20–19
3	Kadetten Schaffhausen	10	5	1	4	270	270	0	11			30–27	24–30	—	24–23	30–31	27–17
4	HC Baia Mare	10	3	3	4	264	268	−4	9			35–30	28–28	31–31	—	24–29	21–20
5	Elverum Håndball	10	3	1	6	274	289	−15	7			29–30	23–37	27–28	28–28	—	29–23
6	Metalurg Skopje	10	2	0	8	209	241	−32	4			21–23	24–25	28–24	21–23	22–19	—

Playoffs

The top two teams from Groups C and D contest a playoff to determine the two sides advancing to the knockout phase. The winners of each group will face the runners-up of the other group in a two-legged tie. The first leg will be played on 27–28 February 2016, and the second leg will be played on 5 March 2016.^[9]

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Logroño		Motor Zaporozhye	27 Feb	5 Mar
Skjern Håndbold		Meshkov Brest	28 Feb	5 Mar

Knockout stage

The first-placed team from the preliminary groups A and B will advance to the qurterfinals, while the 2–6th placed teams advance to the round 12 alongside the playoff winners.

See also

• 2015–16 EHF Cup
• 2015–16 EHF Challenge Cup

References

External links

• Official website