2014–15 EHF Champions League

The 2014–15 VELUX EHF Champions League was the 55th edition of Europe's premier club handball competition and the 22nd edition under the current EHF Champions League format. SG Flensburg-Handewitt were the defending champions.

EHF Champions League

2014–15
The Lanxess Arena hosts the final
Tournament information
Sport	Handball
Dates	2014–2015
Teams	33 (Qualification stage) 24 (Group stage) 16 (Knockout stage)
Final positions
Champions	Barcelona
Runner-up	MKB Veszprém
Tournament statistics
Matches played	148
Goals scored	7932 (53.59 per match)
Attendance	691,601 (4,673 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Momir Ilic (114 goals)

FC Barcelona Handbol defeated MKB Veszprém KC 28–23 in the final to win their eighth EHF Champions League title. The record winners of the European top flight also claimed one trophy of the Champions Cup (the EHF Champions League forerunner) in 1991.[1]

Overview

Team allocation

League positions of the previous season shown in parentheses (TH: Title holders). 21 teams were directly qualified for the group stage.[2]

Group stage
Flensburg-Handewitt^TH (3rd)	Paris Saint-Germain (2nd)	Pick Szeged (2nd)	Vive Targi Kielce (1st)
THW Kiel (1st)	Montpellier (3rd)	Chekhovskiye Medvedi (1st)	Wisła Płock (2nd)
Rhein-Neckar Löwen (2nd)	KIF Kolding København (1st)	Kadetten Schaffhausen (1st)	Alingsås HK (1st)
Barcelona (1st)	Aalborg (2nd)	Zagreb (1st)
Logroño (2nd)	Celje (1st)	Metalurg Skopje (1st)
Dunkerque (1st)	MKB Veszprém (1st)	Vardar (2nd)
Qualification tournament
Meshkov Brest (1st)	Haslum HK (CW)	Beşiktaş (1st)	Targos Bevo HC (1st)
HCM Constanța (1st)	Vojvodina (1st)	Tatran Prešov (1st)	Initia Hasselt (1st)
Porto (1st)	Motor Zaporozhye (1st)	Alpla HC Hard (1st)	Junior Fasano (1st)

Round and draw dates

Draws were held at the European Handball Federation headquarters in Vienna, Austria and the only exception was the VELUX EHF FINAL4 draw in the Botanic Garden of Cologne, Germany.

Phase	Round	Draw date	First leg	Second leg
Qualifying	Qualification tournaments	26 June 2014	5–7 September 2014
Group stage	Matchday 1	27 June 2014	24–28 September 2014
	Matchday 2		1–5 October 2014
	Matchday 3		8–12 October 2014
	Matchday 4		15–19 October 2014
	Matchday 5		12–16 November 2014
	Matchday 6		19–23 November 2014
	Matchday 7		26–30 November 2014
	Matchday 8		3–6 December 2014
	Matchday 9		11–15 February 2015
	Matchday 10		18–22 February 2015
Knockout stage	Last 16	24 February 2015	11–15 March 2015	18–22 March 2015
	Quarter Final	24 March 2015	8–12 April 2015	15–19 April 2015
Final Four (Cologne)	Semifinals	21 April 2015	30 May 2015 at Lanxess Arena
	Final		31 May 2015 at Lanxess Arena

Qualification stage

Twelve teams took part in the qualification tournaments. They were drawn into three groups of four teams, where they played a semifinal and a final or third place match. The winners of the qualification tournaments, played on 6–7 September 2014, qualified for the group stage, while the eliminated teams were transferred to the 2014–15 EHF Cup. The draw took place on 26 June 2014, at 14:00 local time, in Vienna, Austria.[2][3]

Seedings

The seedings were published on 23 June 2014.[4]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Motor Zaporozhye Meshkov Brest HCM Constanța	Vojvodina Porto Haslum HK	Tatran Prešov Alpla HC Hard Beşiktaş	Targos Bevo HC Initia Hasselt Junior Fasano

Qualification tournament 1

	Semifinals				Final
	6 September
	Meshkov Brest	36
					7 September
	Targos Bevo HC	23
					Meshkov Brest	26
	6 September
					Tatran Prešov	24
	Vojvodina	21
	Tatran Prešov	25
					Third place game
					7 September
					Targos Bevo HC	25
					Vojvodina	30

Qualification tournament 2

	Semifinals				Final
	5 September
	Motor Zaporozhye	36
					6 September
	Junior Fasano	20
					Motor Zaporozhye	30
	5 September
					Porto	26
	Porto	29
	Alpla HC Hard	25
					Third place game
					6 September
					Junior Fasano	26
					Alpla HC Hard	35

Qualification tournament 3

	Semifinals				Final
	6 September
	HCM Constanța	29
					7 September
	Initia Hasselt	20
					HCM Constanța	25
	6 September
					Beşiktaş	34
	Haslum HK	22
	Beşiktaş	29
					Third place game
					7 September
					Initia Hasselt	26
					Haslum HK	35

Group stage

Kiel

Rhein-Neckar

Flensburg

Barcelona

Logroño

Dunkerque

PSG

Montpellier

KIF

Aalborg

Celje

Veszprém

Szeged

Chekhov

Kadetten

Zagreb

Vardar

Metalurg

Kielce

Płock

Brest

Alingsås

Motor

Beşiktaş

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

24 teams were drawn into four groups of six teams, where they played each other twice. The top four teams advanced to the knockout stage. The draw took place on 27 June 2014, at 18:00 local time, in Vienna, Austria.[2][5]

Seedings

The seedings were published on 23 June 2014.[4]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
THW Kiel Barcelona MKB Veszprém Vive Targi Kielce	KIF Kolding København Metalurg Skopje Celje Dunkerque	Zagreb Chekhovskiye Medvedi Kadetten Schaffhausen Alingsås HK

Pot 4	Pot 5	Pot 6
Rhein-Neckar Löwen Logroño Pick Szeged Wisła Płock	Flensburg-Handewitt Aalborg Vardar Paris Saint-Germain	Montpellier Meshkov Brest Motor Zaporozhye Beşiktaş

Key to colours in group tables
Top four placed teams advanced to the last 16

Group A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		KIE	PSG	ZAG	LOG	MSH	MET
THW Kiel	10	9	0	1	322	259	+63	18		—	33–29	34–27	34–32	33–22	35–16
Paris Saint-Germain	10	6	0	4	297	266	+31	12		25–27	—	27–22	32–25	36–25	35–24
Zagreb	10	6	0	4	241	248	−7	12		27–25	25–24	—	31–30	25–23	19–17
Logroño	10	4	1	5	305	305	0	9		30–34	35–33	22–21	—	39–31	31–26
Meshkov Brest	10	2	2	6	267	293	−26	6		24–25	28–29	26–22	33–33	—	28–24
Metalurg Skopje	10	1	1	8	233	294	−61	3		27–42	22–27	20–22	29–28	27–27	—

Source:

Group B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		BAR	KOL	PŁO	FLE	ALI	BJK
Barcelona	10	8	1	1	338	280	+58	17		—	33–27	30–25	36–27	42–29	35–25
KIF Kolding København	10	6	2	2	292	273	+19	14		27–27	—	30–30	35–21	34–33	34–31
Wisła Płock	10	6	1	3	288	280	+8	13		34–31	28–29	—	31–29	28–25	28–19
Flensburg-Handewitt	10	6	0	4	288	277	+11	12		33–37	27–20	35–28	—	31–21	31–27
Alingsås HK	10	1	0	9	252	298	−46	2		28–38	19–23	22–23	22–27	—	27–24
Beşiktaş	10	1	0	9	253	303	−50	2		25–29	24–33	30–33	20–27	28–26	—

Source:

Group C

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		VES	VAR	RNL	MON	CEL	CHE
MKB Veszprém	10	9	0	1	300	262	+38	18		—	32–24	27–24	30–29	29–26	38–31
Vardar	10	7	1	2	313	289	+24	15		23–24	—	28–25	30–26	34–32	39–28
Rhein-Neckar Löwen	10	6	0	4	302	282	+20	12		32–25	28–35	—	35–24	31–27	34–29
Montpellier	10	3	2	5	293	317	−24	8		20–34	34–34	29–33	—	35–29	32–32
Celje	10	3	0	7	284	293	−9	6		21–24	26–27	32–28	27–30	—	29–25
Chekhovskiye Medvedi	10	0	1	9	300	349	−49	1		32–37	34–39	26–32	33–34	30–35	—

Source:

Group D

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		KSK	SZE	DUN	AAL	ZAP	KAD
Vive Targi Kielce	10	10	0	0	312	271	+41	20		—	37–32	36–32	33–26	30–26	33–24
Pick Szeged	10	6	1	3	276	264	+12	13		26–27	—	23–21	23–23	27–26	34–24
Dunkerque	10	4	0	6	257	263	−6	8		25–28	24–25	—	21–26	31–29	29–25
Aalborg	10	2	3	5	256	269	−13	7		25–27	25–28	25–28	—	30–36	23–23
Motor Zaporozhye	10	3	0	7	283	284	−1	6		27–28	25–29	21–23	25–28	—	31–26
Kadetten Schaffhausen	10	2	2	6	264	297	−33	6		28–33	32–29	25–23	25–25	32–37	—

Source:

Knockout stage

The top four placed teams of each group advance to the knockout stage. In the round of 16 and the quarterfinals, the teams will play a home-and away series to determine the four participants of the final four, which then determines the winner.

Last 16

The draw was held on 24 February 2015 at 12:30 in Vienna, Austria. The first legs were played on 11–15 March and the second legs on 18–22 March 2015.[6]

Seedings

The seedings were published on 23 February 2015.[7]

A team from Pot 1 will face a team from Pot 4, a Pot 2 team will play against a team from Pot 3.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
THW Kiel Barcelona MKB Veszprém Vive Targi Kielce	Paris Saint-Germain KIF Kolding København Vardar Pick Szeged	Zagreb Wisła Płock Rhein-Neckar Löwen Dunkerque	Logroño Flensburg-Handewitt Montpellier Aalborg

Matches

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Logroño	54–68	MKB Veszprém	23–31	31–37
Montpellier	58–60	Vive Targi Kielce	25–29	33–31
Aalborg	33–60	Barcelona	11–31	22–29
Flensburg-Handewitt	49–63	THW Kiel	21–30	28–33
Dunkerque	43–46	Paris Saint-Germain	21–23	22–23
Wisła Płock	52–57	Vardar	32–26	20–31
Rhein-Neckar Löwen	59–65	Pick Szeged	30–34	29–31
Zagreb	43–40	KIF Kolding København	22–17	21–23

Quarterfinals

The draw was held on 24 March 2015 at 11:30 in Vienna, Austria. The first legs were played on 8–12 April and the second legs on 15–19 April 2015.[8][9]

Seedings

The seedings were published on 23 March 2015.[8]

Pot 1	Pot 2
THW Kiel Barcelona MKB Veszprém Vive Targi Kielce	Paris Saint-Germain Zagreb Pick Szeged Vardar

Matches

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Zagreb	44–68	Barcelona	23–25	21–43
Vardar	51–55	Vive Targi Kielce	20–22	31–33
Paris Saint-Germain	52–58	MKB Veszprém	24–24	28–34
Pick Szeged	54–60	THW Kiel	31–29	23–31

Final four

The draw was held on 21 April 2015.[10][11]

The final four will be held on 30–31 May 2015 at the Lanxess Arena, Cologne.

	Semi-finals				Final
	30 May
	Barcelona	33
					31 May
	Vive Targi Kielce	28
					Barcelona	28
	30 May
					MKB Veszprém	23
	THW Kiel	27
	MKB Veszprém	31
					Third place
					31 May
					Vive Targi Kielce	28
					THW Kiel	26

All-Star Team

The all-star team was announced by EHF on 29 May 2015.[12]

• Goalkeeper:  Roland Mikler (HUN)
• Right wing:  Víctor Tomás (ESP)
• Right back:  Kiril Lazarov (MKD)
• Playmaker:  Mikkel Hansen (DEN)
• Left back:  Nikola Karabatić (FRA)
• Left wing:  Uwe Gensheimer (GER)
• Pivot:  Renato Sulić (CRO)
• Best Defender:  Rene Toft Hansen (DEN)
• Best Young player:  Alex Dujshebaev (ESP)
• Best Coach:  Talant Duyshebaev (ESP)

Top goalscorers

Statistics exclude qualifying round.[13]

Rank	Player	Team	Goals
1	Momir Ilić	Veszprém	114
2	Kiril Lazarov	Barcelona	106
3	Mikkel Hansen	Paris	103
4	Karol Bielecki	Kielce	92
5	Timur Dibirov	Vardar	78
6	Zsolt Balogh	Szeged	76
	Marko Vujin	Kiel
8	Nikola Karabatić	Barcelona	75
9	Igor Karačić	Vardar	74
10	Alex Dujshebaev	Vardar	73

See also

• 2014–15 EHF Cup
• 2014–15 EHF Challenge Cup

References

1. "FC Barcelona claim eighth title". ehfcl.com. 31 May 2015.
2. "New season line-up for the VELUX EHF Champions League". ehfcl.com. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
3. "Junior to test Motor after qualification draw". ehfcl.com. 2014-06-26.
4. "Seeding for Qualification and Group Phase draws confirmed". ehfcl.com. 2014-06-23.
5. "Draw reunites Flensburg with Barcelona". ehfcl.com. 2014-06-27.
6. "Last 16 draw reunites the finalists: Flensburg vs Kiel". ehfcl.com. 24 February 2015.
7. "Defending champions lurk in the fourth pot before the Last 16 draw". ehfcl.com. 23 February 2015.
8. "Last eight await Tuesday's quarter-final fate". ehfcl.com. 23 March 2015.
9. "Barcelona take on Zagreb, Kiel meet Szeged". ehfcl.com. 24 March 2015.
10. "Four favourites face the FINAL4 fate". ehfcl.com. 20 April 2015.
11. "Barcelona vs Kielce, Kiel vs Veszprem". ehfcl.com. 21 April 2015.
12. "All-star team vote reaches new heights with 44,000 fans". ehfcl.com. 29 May 2015.
13. Top scorers

External links

• Official website