The 2023–24 EHF Champions League was the 64th edition of Europe's premier club

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

tournament, running from 13 September 2023 to 9 June 2024. SC Magdeburg were the reigning champions but lost in the semifinals. Barça defeated Aalborg Håndbold in the final to win their 12th title.

Format

The tournament used 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 3rd to 6th entering 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 plays 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.

Rankings

This season, the EHF decided to make separate

rankings A ranking is a relationship between a set of items, often recorded in a list, such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than", or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak ...

for each club competition. *Associations 1–9 had their league champion qualify for the group stage and apply for a wildcards. *The Association that won the past season's

EHF European League The EHF European League is an annual men's handball club competition organised by the European Handball Federation (EHF) since 1981. It is the second-tier competition of European club handball, ranking only below the EHF Champions League. Previo ...

gad their league champion and runner up qualify for the group stage but cannot apply for a wildcard. *Associations below the top 9 had their league champion apply for a wildcard.

Teams

20 teams applied for a place, with ten having a fixed place. The final list was announced in June 20, 2023. The fixed place for Russia was vacant since the country and its clubs were not admitted to participate in the EHF competitions due to the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. *^WC Accepted wildcards

Draw

The draw took place on 27 June 2023.

Group stage

The 16 teams were drawn into two groups of eight. Teams from the same national association could not be drawn into the same group. 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: #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; #Superior goal difference in all matches of the group; #Highest number of plus goals in all matches of the group; #Drawing of Lots A total of 11 national associations will be represented in the group stage. North Macedonia are the only returnees, after Vardar 1961 was disqualified last season. Kolstad Håndball are the only debutants.

Group A

Group B

Knockout stage

Playoffs

Quarterfinals

Final four

The final four was held at the

Lanxess Arena Lanxess Arena (stylized as LANXESS arena; originally Kölnarena, German for "Cologne arena") is an indoor arena, in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is known as the 18,500-capacity home of the Kölner Haie and as one of Germany's major ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, Germany on 8 and 9 June 2024.

Bracket

Final

Top goalscorers

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:EHF Champions League

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