13 countries, four national champions and one debutant

16 teams from 13 different countries have made it to the group phase of the Men’s EHF Cup after some highly thrilling qualification matches last weekend.

On Thursday (11:00 hrs. local time) for the third time in the history of this competition, merged from EHF Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup in 2012, a group phase will be drawn. eurohandball.com has composed the most important facts and figures of those 16 participants.

0 teams have gone all the way from the first qualification round to the group phase.

0 winners of the “new EHF Cup” (since the 2012/13 season) are in this season’s competition: Rhein Neckar Löwen (winner in 2013) and Pick Szeged (2014) are part of the VELUX EHF Champions League Group Phase.

0 teams from France are part of the group phase – in contrast to three teams in the previous season.

0 teams have been part of all group phases, since the playing system has changed.

1 group phase participant has won the “old version” of the EHF Cup. Granollers won this trophy twice in the 1994/95 and the 1995/96 seasons. HSV Hamburg won the Cup Winners’ Cup in the 2006/07 season.

1 EHF European Cup competitions debutant has made it to the group phase: MT Melsungen from Germany.

1 former winner of the VELUX EHF Champions League is among the 16 teams: HSV Hamburg (Germany, winner in 2013). Thus in every season of the merged EHF Cup one former EHF Champions League winner was part of the group phase: SC Magdeburg (2012/13, CL winner in 2002), Montpellier Agglomeration HB (2013/14, CL winner in 2003).

2 of the 16 teams had been part of the first group phase of the EHF Cup in the 2012/13 season: Holstebro and Guif.

3 teams from Germany are among the 16 group phase participants.

3 teams from last season’s group phase have again made it that far: Füchse Berlin (GER), Skjern Handbold (DEN) and HCM Constanta (ROU).

3 teams are among those 16 which had been part of EHF Cup finals: Team Tvis Holstebro (DEN, 2013), Füchse Berlin (GER) and HCM Constanta (ROU, both in 2014). All three did not make it to the final.

3 teams were lucky to qualify for the group phase thanks to the away goal rule in the qualification: Berlin, Hamburg and Granollers. Their aggregate results were ties, but thanks to scoring the higher number of goals in their away matches, they are part of the group phase now.

3 countries, which had been represented in last season’s group phase, are out in this season: France, Slovakia and FYR Macedonia.

4 countries represent the EHF Cup winners since the original implementation in the 1993/94 season: Germany (15 titles), Spain (4), Croatia and Hungary (each 1).

4 of the 16 teams played in the VELUX EHF Champions League last season: HSV Hamburg (GER), Gorenje Velenje (SLO), St. Petersburg HC (RUS) and FC Porto (POR).

4 current national champions have qualified for the EHF Cup group phase: Haslum (NOR), Vojvodina (SRB), Porto (POR) and Constanta (ROU). Those teams had failed on way to the qualification for the VELUX EHF Champions League group phase and continued in qualification for the EHF Cup.

4 countries are represented for the first time in the group phase of the EHF Cup: Croatia, Russia, Serbia and Switzerland. In addition, clubs from Norway and Slovenia were not part of the group phase last previous season.

4 teams turned an away defeat in the first leg of Round 3 into qualification for the group phase: Haslum, Balatonfüredi, St. Petersburg and Granollers.

7 teams have already played four qualification matches, as they began their campaign in Round 2: Nexe, Balatonfüredi, Skjern, Holstebro, Winterthur, Guíf and Melsungen.

13 different countries are represented by those 16 clubs. While Germany have three group phase participants and Denmark two, Croatia, Spain, Hungary, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Serbia, Switzerland and Sweden are represented by one team each. Seven of those countries (DEN, ESP, GER, HUN, POR, ROU, SWE) were represented in last season’s group phase.

27 goals was the biggest winning margin in qualification round 3: Skjern scored an aggregate result of 72:45 against Oroshazi (HUN).

36 goals were scored by Marcel Hees (Pfadi Winterthur) to sit on top of the scorers list prior to the start of the group phase. Second best scorer of the teams still involved is Balasz Szöllösi (Balatonfüredi), who found the net 29 times.

48 group matches will decide the six or eight teams to proceed to the quarter-finals.