Aalborg Håndbold (against HC Zagreb) and OTP Bank-PICK Szeged (against Kolstad Handball) won their home matches in group A on Thursday. After their draw at Kielce yesterday and Kolstad's defeat, THW Kiel are finally the first team from group A to clinch their play-off berth – three rounds before the end, six more teams are atill in the race for five tickets to the knock-out stages in this group. But the first five, who all started the new year unbeaten, have increased the gap to Kolstad and Zagreb.

In group B, FC Porto conceded their biggest ever defeat in the Machineseeker Champions League against Telekom Veszprém, while SC Magdeburg turned the match against Plock around after the break to take their ninth consecutive win.