HSV and Barca head to Qatar

HSV Hamburg and FC Barcelona Intersport head towards Doha, Qatar for the 2013 edition of the IHF Superglobe.

The tournament, consisting of prepresentatives from each continent as well as the hosts and wild card participants, takes place between 25 and 30 August. Both European teams are expected to fare well in the tournament and could meet in a repeat of the classic game at June's VELUX EHF FINAL4 in Cologne.

Since their defeat to HSV, Barcelona have bolstered their squad with two high profile signings in the form of Kiril Lazarov from Madrid and Nikola Karabatic from Aix in France. They will be using the event to prepare for another European assault.

Hamburg travel to Qatar on the back of their narrow victory over Füchse Berlin on Friday, which secured them a place in the Group Phase in the VELUX EHF Champions League.

VELUX EHF Champions League winner HSV Hamburg will be in Group A along host Al-Sadd (Qatar), wild card team El-Jeish (Qatar) and Oceania champions Sydney University (Australia).

FC Barcelona, who lost to HSV in June's final in Cologne, were a late addition to the competition after the withdrawal of Atlético Madrid. The Spanish champions will face African champions Etoile Sportive du Sahel from Tunisia, Asian title holders Al-Rayyan (Qatar) and the Pan-American representatives Taubate from Brazil in Group B. 

The preliminary round will be played in two groups from 25-27 August, followed by semi-finals and placement matches, with the final on 30 August. All matches will take place at the Al-Gharafa hall in Doha. All games will be streamed live by Qatari broadcaster Al-Kass on their website.