 Fresh blood among Europe’s elite
Neither Luxembourg side Handball Esch nor DROTT Halmstad from Sweden have been part of the VELUX EHF Champions League Group Phase – but both nevertheless have some experience in the competition. While Esch played in the Last 32 in thr 1996/97 season, Halmstadt played the first round of the EHF Champions League in the 1999/2000 season, also a knockout stage at the time.
The winner of this duel will proceed to group D and will face Aalborg, Velenje, Flensburg, La Rioja and the winner of the All-German wild card duel Hamburg vs. Berlin. The loser will continue in the third qualification round of the EHF Cup.
Esch wrote history the previous season as the first Luxemburg club to reach the quarter-finals of a European Cup competition and even made it as far as the Challenge Cup Final, where SKA Minsk put an end to their campaign.
However, coming up against DROTT Halmstad, they are the underdogs. After team captain Michael Mattson was forced to retire through injury, Halmstad coach Ulf Sivertsson now counts on Philip Stenmalm, MVP at the Junior World Championship in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Marcus Holmén.
“I still think we are favourites and reaching the group phase would be an enormous opportunity to develop our young team,” says head coach Ulf Sivertsson.
Qualification Group 1:
HK DROTT Halmstad (SWE) vs. Handball Esch (LUX)
First leg: Saturday, 24. August, 18:00 hrs. local time in Luxemburg
Second leg: 31. August, 16:00 hrs. local time in Halmstad
TEXT: Björn Pazen / cor
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