Four Friday games to open Round 3
By Monday evening, half of the teams for the Last 16 of the Men's Challenge Cup will be known. Eight winners will be found in double headers this weekend, and the first match in four of them are already taking place on Friday.
In Ramat Hasharon in Israel, Bosnian RK Konjuh Zivinice are visiting SGS Ramhat Hashron HC with the first leg taking place already Friday afternoon and the return match on Saturday evening.
Hashron's finest achievement so far was reaching the quarter-final of the Challenge Cup in 2014/15, while Zivinice were in Round 3 of the Cup Winners' Cup in the 2008/09 season.
In Funchal on the island of Madeira, Parnassos Strovolou from Cyprus are playing their first European matches in history this weekend.
Parnassos are meeting AM Madeira Andebol SAD, who were in the Last 32 of EHF Champions League back in the 1999/2000 season.
The first leg is Friday evening, the return match the following evening.
In Mostar in Bosnia Herzegovina, HMRK “Zrinjski” Mostar are hosting BSB Batumi from Georgia for two games Friday and Saturday night.
Batumi were sent out from the Challenge Cup already in the first round last season, while Mostar has not played in Europe since the 2004/05 season, when they reached Round 3 of the tournament.
The fourth and last Friday game in the Men's Challenge Cup is being played in the Centre Sportif De Differdange in Oberkorn, Luxembourg. Red Boys Differdange, who have been in the Last 32 of the Champions League three times, are receiving Bulgarian HC Dobrudja, to whom Round 3 has been the end the previous three years. The second leg is played Saturday evening.
Three further double-headers are being carried out Saturday and Sunday. One of those is taking place in Athens, where AEK Athens are taking London GD HC who are back in the Challenge Cup after being in the EHF Cup last season, where the British team was sent out in Round 1, though. AEK have been in the Champions League qualifiers twice, but had to leave the Challenge Cup after Round 3 last season.
One double header will not find its decision until Monday night. That is the tie between HC ZNTU-ZAB Zaporozhye from Ukraine and RK Mojkovac 2005 from Montenegro. The first match in the Palace of Sports “ZAS” in Zaporozhye is taking place Sunday in the late evening and the second leg then Monday evening.
Find the overview of all matches here
TEXT: Peter Bruun / br
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