28.11.2016, 12:30
Defending champions in Pot 1 before Thursday's draw

DRAW PREVIEW: Frisch Auf Göppingen will be among top seeded teams in the Men's EHF Cup Group Phase draw on Thursday alongside KIF Kolding Kobenhavn, MT Melsungen and Saint-Raphael Var Handball.

Defending champions in Pot 1 before Thursday's draw

Following the last weekend's Qualification Round 3 matches in the Men’s EHF Cup all is set for the group phase draw of the fifth edition since its merging with the Cup Winners' Cup.

The draw will take place at the EHF headquarters in Vienna on Thursday 1 December at 11:00 hrs local time and will be streamed live on ehfTV's youtube channel and EHF's facebook page. In addition the draw will be covered with a live ticker and reports on eurohandball.com as well as live tweets on @EHF.

According to the regulations the teams from the same country cannot play in the same group. There are nine countries represented by their teams in the group phase with Germany leading with four teams followed by Denmark with three and Portugal and Spain with two clubs each.

For the first time in the EHF Cup history clubs from Finland (Cocks) and Israel (Maccabi CASTRO Tel Aviv) will take part.

The defending champions Frisch Auf Göppingen are seeded in Pot 1 together with their bundesliga rivals MT Melsungen, Saint-Raphael Var Handball from France and Denmark's KIF Kolding Kobenhavn.

The first round of the group phase is scheduled for 11-12 February and the last round will take place on 1-2 April.

Men's EHF Cup Group Phase draw:

POT 1
KIF Kolding Kobenhavn (DEN)
Saint-Raphael Var Handball (FRA)
MT Melsungen (GER)
Frisch Auf Göppingen (GER)

POT 2
HC Midtjylland (DEN)
Helvetia Anaitasuna (ESP)
Grundfos Tatabanya KC (HUN)
RD Riko Ribnica (SLO)

POT 3
GOG (DEN)
Fraikin BM. Granollers (ESP)
SC Magdeburg (GER)
S.L. Benfica (POR)

POT 4
Cocks (FIN)
Füchse Berlin (GER)
Maccabi CASTRO Tel Aviv (ISR)
Futebol Clube do Porto (POR)

TEXT: EHF / br