The first Match of the Week in 2021 in the EHF Champions League Men features a fascinating clash in group A between HBC Nantes and Aalborg Håndbold.

Throw-off is at 20:45 CET on Wednesday 8 February and it will be streamed live on EHFTV with commentary from Chris O’Reilly.

The MOTW coverage sees the game day begin with the Breakfast for Champions series on the EHF Champions League Instagram page. During the day, fans will be able to enjoy exclusive coverage across all EHF Champions League social media channels as well as the live blog on eurohandball.com.

World Championship medallists in action

To the surprise of many, Aalborg were the best-represented team in January’s World Championship final, with four of their Danes earning a gold medal and three Swedes taking silver.

Their performances this season, however, should be a surprise to nobody as they continue to mix it with the big boys in a stacked group B.

Aalborg’s final games of 2020 saw them beat Veszprém away from home before pushing Barça all the way in an unfortunate loss, form which they will hope to reignite and push for a top half finish in the group.

Nantes had their fair share of success at Egypt 2021 with goalkeeper Emil Nielsen winning gold with Denmark and Adrian Figueras snatching a bronze with Spain.

Their European campaign has been far from ideal so far, despite promising so much with an early win against Kiel. Since then, Nantes have scored just one victory in six games, leaving them sixth in the group and in serious need of a big performance in Match of the Week.