2018–19 EHF Champions League

This article is about the 2018–19 EHF Men's Champions League. For the EHF Women's Champions League, see 2018–19 Women's EHF Champions League.

The 2018–19 EHF Champions League was the 59th edition of Europe's premier club handball tournament and the 26th edition under the current EHF Champions League format.

EHF Champions League

2018–19
Tournament information
Sport	Handball
Dates	12 September 2018–2 June 2019
Teams	28
Website	ehfcl.com
Final positions
Champions	RK Vardar
Runner-up	Telekom Veszprém
Tournament statistics
Matches played	200
Goals scored	11395 (56.98 per match)
Attendance	738,682 (3,693 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Alex Dujshebaev (99 goals)

RK Vardar defeated Telekom Veszprém 27–24 in the final to win their second title.

Competition format

Twenty-eight teams, divided into four groups, participated in the competition. Groups A and B were played with eight teams each, in a round robin, home and away format. The top team in each group qualified directly for the quarter-finals, while the bottom two in each group dropped out of the competition. The remaining 10 teams qualified for the first knockout phase.

In Groups C and D, six teams played in each group in a round robin format, with both home and away games. The top two teams in each group then met in an elimination play-off, with the two winners proceeding to the first knockout phase. The remaining teams were eliminated from the competition.

Knockout phase 1 (last 16)

12 teams played home and away in the first knockout phase, with the 10 teams qualified from Groups A and B and the two teams qualified from Groups C and D.

Knockout phase 2 (quarter-finals)

The six winners of the matches in the first knockout phase were joined by the winners of Groups A and B to play home and away for the right to contest the VELUX EHF FINAL4.

VELUX EHF FINAL4

The culmination of the season, the VELUX EHF FINAL4, continued in its existing format, with the four top teams from the competition competing for the title over one weekend in LANXESS arena, Cologne.

Team allocation

28 teams were directly qualified for the group stage.

Groups A/B
Meshkov Brest	PPD Zagreb	Skjern Håndbold	Montpellier Handball
HBC Nantes	Paris Saint-Germain	Flensburg-Handewitt	Rhein-Neckar Löwen
MOL-Pick Szeged	Telekom Veszprém	RK Vardar	PGE Vive Kielce
Barça Lassa	IFK Kristianstad	Celje Pivovarna Laško	Motor Zaporizhzhia
Groups C/D
Bjerringbro-Silkeborg	Riihimäki Cocks	Metalurg Skopje	Elverum Håndball
Wisła Płock	Sporting CP	Dinamo București	Chekhovskiye Medvedi
Tatran Prešov	Ademar León	Wacker Thun	Beşiktaş

Round and draw dates

Phase	Draw date
Group stage	29 June 2018
Knockout stage
Final Four (Cologne)	7 May 2019

Group stage

RN Löwen

Flensburg

Barcelona

León

PSG

Montpellier

Nantes

Veszprém

Szeged

Bjerringbro

Skjern

Celje

Kielce

Płock

Vardar

Metalurg

Kristianstad

Brest

Thun

Dinamo

Zagreb

Sporting

Chekhov

Motor

Cocks

Prešov

Elverum

Beşiktaş

class=notpageimage|

Location of teams of the 2018–19 EHF Champions League group stage.
Red: Group A; Blue: Group B; Green: Group C; Yellow: Group D.

Main article: 2018–19 EHF Champions League group stage

The draw for the group stage was held on 29 June 2018 at 12:30 at the Erste Campus in Vienna, Austria. 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). The only restriction was that teams from the same national association could not face each other in the same group. The only exception was HBC Nantes, who play against one of the two French rivals in the group.

In each group, teams will play against each other in a double round-robin format, with home and away matches.

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

• Groups A and B – the top team will qualify directly for the quarterfinals, and the five teams ranked 2nd–6th will 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.

Tiebreakers

In the group stage, teams are 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: Highest number of points in matches between the teams directly involved; Superior goal difference in matches between the teams directly involved; Highest number of goals scored in matches between the teams directly involved (or in the away match in case of a two-team tie); Superior goal difference in all matches of the group; Highest number of plus goals in all matches of the group; If the ranking of one of these teams is determined, the above criteria are consecutively followed until the ranking of all teams is determined. If no ranking can be determined, a decision shall be obtained by EHF through drawing of lots. During the group stage, only criteria 4–5 apply to determine the provisional ranking of teams.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		BAR	VES	VAR	KIE	RNL	BRE	MON	KRI
1	Barça Lassa	14	12	0	2	486	391	+95	24	Quarterfinals		—	31–28	34–26	31–27	30–25	41–32	35–27	43–26
2	Telekom Veszprém	14	10	0	4	410	382	+28	20	First knockout round		29–26	—	24–27	29–27	28–29	28–20	25–19	36–27
3	RK Vardar	14	9	1	4	406	390	+16	19			26–30	27–29	—	28–27	29–27	30–23	33–27	33–25
4	PGE Vive Kielce	14	7	0	7	439	430	+9	14			36–42	35–36	31–27	—	35–32	33–31	27–28	33–31
5	Rhein-Neckar Löwen	14	7	0	7	418	410	+8	14			35–34	25–29	27–30	30–29	—	33–27	37–27	36–27
6	Meshkov Brest	14	4	1	9	379	419	−40	9			21−29	28–29	31–31	26–35	27–24	—	26–23	32–23
7	Montpellier	14	3	1	10	377	414	−37	7			28–36	29–30	24–27	26–29	31–26	29–23	—	30–31
8	IFK Kristianstad	14	2	1	11	396	475	−79	5			25–44	32–29	30–31	33–34	27–32	30–32	29–29	—

Source: EHF
Notes:

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		PAR	SZE	FLE	NAN	ZAP	ZAG	SKJ	CEL
1	Paris Saint-Germain	14	13	0	1	455	385	+70	26	Quarterfinals		—	33–31	29–28	35–34	31–25	33–28	38–28	33–21
2	MOL-Pick Szeged	14	9	2	3	411	397	+14	20	First knockout round		33–32	—	30–28	30–28	30–29	26–26	33–33	33–24
3	Flensburg-Handewitt	14	7	1	6	378	370	+8	15			20–27	27–25	—	29–29	31–24	29–31	26–22	27–26
4	HBC Nantes	14	5	4	5	421	408	+13	14			31–35	29–26	31–34	—	23–27	23–20	35–27	38–27
5	Motor Zaporizhzhia	14	5	1	8	389	381	+8	11			29–35	31–32	28–26	30–30	—	35–27	33–23	36–27
6	PPD Zagreb	14	4	3	7	382	420	−38	11			21–32	23–24	21–22	27–27	27–24	—	32–29	24–22
7	Skjern Håndbold	14	3	2	9	398	439	−41	8			24–26	26–29	24–31	32–34	37–33	31–31	—	35–32
8	Celje Pivovarna Laško	14	3	1	10	380	416	−36	7			32–36	28–29	23–20	29–29	33–28	30–21	26–27	—

Source: EHF
Notes:

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		BJE	SPO	PRE	MED	BES	SKO
1	Bjerringbro-Silkeborg	10	8	0	2	323	273	+50	16	Playoffs		—	29–28	29–30	39–28	34–27	33–25
2	Sporting CP	10	7	0	3	304	277	+27	14			32–35	—	26–28	33–31	34–28	34–26
3	Tatran Prešov	10	7	0	3	278	268	+10	14			26–24	27–30	—	27–28	27–23	30–24
4	Chekhovskiye Medvedi	10	4	0	6	280	279	+1	8			24–30	22–23	38–26	—	22–24	33–25
5	Beşiktaş	10	3	0	7	255	289	−34	6			24–37	27–33	22–28	27–30	—	23–22
6	Metalurg Skopje	10	1	0	9	246	300	−54	2			29–33	24–31	24–29	25–24	22–30	—

Source: EHF
Notes:

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		BUC	PLO	ELV	LEO	RII	THU
1	Dinamo București	10	7	0	3	293	280	+13	14	Playoffs		—	24–21	26–24	35–30	24–22	35–34
2	Wisła Płock	10	7	0	3	278	250	+28	14			29–28	—	30–28	25–23	34–18	34–24
3	Elverum Håndball	10	6	1	3	278	272	+6	13			29–28	28–30	—	30–25	28–27	29–28
4	Ademar León	10	5	2	3	252	251	+1	12			31–28	27–24	24–24	—	23–20	24–21
5	Riihimäki Cocks	10	2	2	6	246	269	−23	6			31–32	27–26	25–28	19–19	—	31–29
6	Wacker Thun	10	0	1	9	268	293	−25	1			29–33	23–25	29–30	25–26	26–26	—

Source: EHF
Notes:

Playoffs

The top two teams from Groups C and D contested 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.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Sporting CP	59–57	Dinamo București	32–31	27–26
Wisła Płock	49–46	Bjerringbro-Silkeborg	22–26	27–20

Knockout stage

Main article: 2018–19 EHF Champions League knockout stage

The first-placed team from the preliminary groups A and B advanced to the quarterfinals, while the 2–6th placed teams advanced to the round of 16 alongside the playoff winners.

Round of 16

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Sporting CP	57–65	Telekom Veszprém	28–30	29–35
Wisła Płock	36–45	MOL-Pick Szeged	20–22	16–23
PPD Zagreb	48–59	RK Vardar	18–27	30–32
Meshkov Brest	48–60	Flensburg-Handewitt	28–30	20–30
Motor Zaporizhzhia	62–67	PGE Vive Kielce	33–33	29–34
Rhein-Neckar Löwen	61–62	HBC Nantes	34–32	27–30

Quarterfinals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
HBC Nantes	51–61	Barça Lassa	25–32	26–29
PGE Vive Kielce	60–59	Paris Saint-Germain	34–24	26–35
Flensburg-Handewitt	47–57	Telekom Veszprém	22–28	25–29
RK Vardar	56–52	MOL-Pick Szeged	31–23	25–29

Final four

	Semifinals				Final
	1 June
	Telekom Veszprém	33
					2 June
	PGE Vive Kielce	30
					Telekom Veszprém	24
	1 June
					RK Vardar	27
	Barça Lassa	27
	RK Vardar	29
					Third place
					2 June
					PGE Vive Kielce	35
					Barça Lassa	40

Final

2 June 2019 18:00	RK Vardar	27–24	Telekom Veszprém	Lanxess Arena, Cologne Attendance: 19,250 Referees: Geipel, Helbig (GER)
	Ferreira 6	(16–11)	Mahé 6
	4× 2×	Report	1× 5×

Statistics and awards

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Alex Dujshebaev	PGE Vive Kielce	99
2	Dainis Krištopāns	RK Vardar	94
3	Andy Schmid	Rhein-Neckar Löwen	91
4	Barys Pukhouski	Motor Zaporizhzhia	87
	Melvyn Richardson	Montpellier
6	Zlatko Horvat	PPD Zagreb	85
7	Valero Rivera Folch	HBC Nantes	81
8	Nedim Remili	Paris Saint-Germain	80
9	Uwe Gensheimer	Paris Saint-Germain	79
	Igor Karačić	RK Vardar
	Jannik Kohlbacher	Rhein-Neckar Löwen
	Petar Nenadić	Telekom Veszprém

Awards

The all-star team was announced on 31 May 2019.

• Goalkeeper: Dejan Milosavljev
• Right wing: Ivan Čupić
• Right back: Dainis Krištopāns
• Centre back: Kentin Mahé
• Left back: Mikkel Hansen
• Left wing: Timur Dibirov
• Pivot: Julen Aguinagalde

Other awards

• MVP of the Final four: Igor Karačić
• Best Defender: Blaž Blagotinšek
• Best Young player: Ludovic Fabregas
• Coach: Roberto García Parrondo

External links

• Official website