2016–17 EHF Champions League

The 2016–17 EHF Champions League is the 57th edition of Europe's premier club handball tournament and the 24th edition under the current EHF Champions League format. Vive Targi Kielce are the defending champions.^[1]

Competition format

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 16)

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.

Team allocation

26 teams were directly qualified for the group stage.^[2]

Groups A/B
Meshkov Brest (1st)	Zagreb (1st)	Bjerringbro-Silkeborg (1st)	Paris Saint-Germain (1st)
Flensburg-Handewitt (2nd)	THW Kiel (3rd)	Rhein-Neckar Löwen (1st)	Pick Szeged (2nd)
Telekom Veszprém (1st)	Vardar (1st)	Vive Tauron KielceTH (1st)	Wisła Płock (2nd)
Celje (1st)	FC Barcelona (1st)	IFK Kristianstad (1st)	Kadetten Schaffhausen (1st)
Groups C/D
Team Tvis Holstebro (2nd)	Montpellier Handball (4th)	HBC Nantes (3rd)	Metalurg Skopje (2nd)
Elverum Håndball (1st)	Dinamo București (1st)	Chekhovskiye Medvedi (1st)	Logroño (2nd)
Beşiktaş (1st)	Motor Zaporozhye (1st)	Qualifier Group 1	Qualifier Group 2
Qualification tournaments
Bregenz Handball	Achilles Bocholt	Riihimäki Cocks	Maccabi Tel Aviv
Red Boys Differdange	ABC/UMinho (1st)	Tatran Prešov	RK Gorenje

• ^{TH = Title holders}

Round and draw dates

The qualification and group stage draw will be held in Glostrup, Denmark.^[3]

Qualification stage

The draw was held on 29 June 2016 at 13:00 in Vienna, Austria. The eight teams were split in two groups and played a semifinal and final to determine the last participants. Matches were played on 3 and 4 September 2016.^[4]

Qualification tournament 1

	Semifinals				Final
	3 September
	RK Gorenje	28
					4 September
	Riihimäki Cocks	25
					RK Gorenje	21
	3 September
					Tatran Prešov	23
	Tatran Prešov	38
	Red Boys Differdange	32
					Third place
					4 September
					Riihimäki Cocks	30
					Red Boys Differdange	21

Qualification tournament 2

	Semifinals				Final
	3 September
	ABC/UMinho	34
					4 September
	Maccabi Tel Aviv	27
					ABC/UMinho	33
	3 September
					Bregenz Handball	32
	Bregenz Handball	39
	Achilles Bocholt	31
					Third place
					4 September
					Maccabi Tel Aviv	33
					Achilles Bocholt	30

Group stage

Kiel

RN Löwen

Flensburg

Barcelona

Logroño

PSG

Montpellier

Nantes

Veszprém

Szeged

Silkeborg

Holstebro

Celje

Kielce

Płock

Vardar

Metalurg

Kristianstad

Brest

Kadetten

Dinamo

Zagreb

ABC

Chekhov

Motor

Tatran

Elverum

Beşiktaş

Location of teams of the 2016–17 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 1 July 2016 at 13:00 in the Vienna city centre. 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 is 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 (Kiel) was drawn with one of the other two.^[5]

In each group, teams 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 qualify directly for the quarterfinals, and the five teams ranked 2nd–6th advanced 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		Barcelona	Paris Saint-Germain	MVM Veszprém	Flensburg-Handewitt	THW Kiel	Wisła Płock	Bjerringbro-Silkeborg	Kadetten Schaffhausen
1	Barcelona (T)	9	8	0	1	268	229	+39	16	Quarterfinals		—	35–32	26–23	22–26 Feb	26–25	8–12 Mar	34–19	38–25
2	Paris Saint-Germain	9	7	0	2	279	248	+31	14	First knockout round		32–26	—	28–24	27–22	12 Mar	33–30	11 Feb	25 Feb
3	MVM Veszprém	9	4	2	3	239	235	+4	10			11 Feb	28–29	—	11 Mar	21–19	25 Feb	30–29	32–28
4	Flensburg-Handewitt	8	4	1	3	204	192	+12	9			27–28	18 Feb	24–24	—	25–26	22–20	4 Mar	8 Mar
5	THW Kiel	9	4	1	4	226	231	−5	9			5 Mar	28–27	15 Feb	22–30	—	24–24	25 Feb	32–29
6	Wisła Płock	9	2	2	5	231	243	−12	6			23–28	5 Mar	28–28	12 Feb	24–22	—	18 Feb	33–26
7	Bjerringbro-Silkeborg	9	2	0	7	227	257	−30	4	Eliminated		23–27	30–36	24–29	19–25	25–28	33–24	—	12 Mar
8	Kadetten Schaffhausen	8	1	0	7	213	246	−33	2			16 Feb	25–35	1 Mar	26–29	11 Feb	27–25	24–25	—

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		Vive Tauron Kielce	Pick Szeged	Vardar	Rhein-Neckar Löwen	Meshkov Brest	Celje	IFK Kristianstad	Zagreb
1	Vive Tauron Kielce	9	7	0	2	269	248	+21	14	Quarterfinals		—	26 Feb	27–24	26–34	11 Mar	31–23	38–28	29–25
2	Pick Szeged	9	6	1	2	252	229	+23	13	First knockout round		27–29	—	18 Feb	28–28	24–22	27–22	33–28	4 Mar
3	Vardar	9	6	0	3	271	248	+23	12			40–34	30–27	—	26–29	31–27	25 Feb	12 Mar	11 Feb
4	Rhein-Neckar Löwen	9	5	1	3	253	251	+2	11			9 Feb	8–12 Mar	27–33	—	22 Feb	31–30	30–29	25–24
5	Meshkov Brest	9	3	3	3	256	255	+1	9			24–29	9 Feb	4 Mar	30–28	—	29–29	32–27	18 Feb
6	Celje	9	1	3	5	250	274	−24	5			19 Feb	25–31	26–32	5 Mar	36–36	—	11 Feb	30–28
7	IFK Kristianstad	9	1	2	6	243	270	−27	4	Eliminated		4 Mar	21–29	23–28	19 Feb	29–29	29–29	—	29–22
8	Zagreb	9	2	0	7	211	240	−29	4			23–26	24–26	28–27	25–21	22–27	11 Mar	25 Feb	—

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		Montpellier Handball	Logroño	Elverum Håndball	Metalurg Skopje	Tatran Prešov	Chekhovskiye Medvedi
1	Montpellier Handball (A)	9	7	0	2	271	228	+43	14	Playoffs		—	37–27	12 Feb	28–18	28–23	26–22
2	Logroño (A)	9	5	1	3	267	256	+11	11			31–30	—	28–21	31–25	33–27	34–37
3	Elverum Håndball (E)	9	3	2	4	233	243	−10	8	Eliminated		32–31	27–32	—	26–31	24–24	28–28
4	Metalurg Skopje (E)	9	4	0	5	209	227	−18	8			24–30	24–23	18–17	—	26–20	12 Feb
5	Tatran Prešov (E)	9	3	1	5	229	244	−15	7			24–28	11 Feb	25–27	27–22	—	30–28
6	Chekhovskiye Medvedi (E)	9	2	2	5	249	260	−11	6			27–33	28–28	26–31	25–21	28–29	—

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		HBC Nantes	Motor Zaporozhye	Beşiktaş	Dinamo București	Team Tvis Holstebro	ABC/UMinho
1	HBC Nantes (A)	9	7	1	1	278	241	+37	15	Playoffs		—	32–34	33–19	26–24	31–26	35–33
2	Motor Zaporozhye (A)	9	6	1	2	278	244	+34	13			26–26	—	34–28	35–27	34–28	27–23
3	Beşiktaş (E)	9	4	1	4	246	262	−16	9	Eliminated		28–33	23–22	—	11 Feb	36–27	33–31
4	Dinamo București (E)	9	3	2	4	267	265	+2	8			26–27	35–31	26–26	—	30–25	35–29
5	Team Tvis Holstebro (E)	9	2	1	6	253	284	−31	5			25–35	12 Feb	29–25	32–32	—	34–29
6	ABC/UMinho (E)	9	2	0	7	260	276	−16	4			11 Feb	22–35	27–28	34–32	32–27	—

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 1–5 March 2017 and the second leg on 7–12 March 2017.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
D2	–	Montpellier Handball	1–5 Mar	7–12 Mar
Logroño	–	D1	1–5 Mar	7–12 Mar

Knockout stage

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

Round of 16

Quarterfinals

Final four

Final

See also

• 2016–17 EHF Cup
• 2016–17 EHF Challenge Cup
• 2016–17 Women's EHF Champions League

References

External links

• Official website