05.04.2021, 09:30
Aalborg to play catch-up with Porto in MOTW

NEWS: The Match of the Week travels to Denmark for the second leg of the play-offs of the EHF Champions League Men

Aalborg Håndbold and FC Porto share a common goal: both clubs want to reach the EHF Champions League quarter-final for the first time.

However, for only one of them the club’s history books will be rewritten on Wednesday, when the teams meet for the decisive leg of the play-offs, following Porto’s 32:29 win in the opening leg last week.

Aalborg against Porto has been named Match of the Week. The game in the Jutlander Bank Arena is scheduled for throw-off at 18:45 CEST on Wednesday 7 April and will be streamed live on EHFTV with commentary from Tom O'Brannagain.

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.

Aalborg and Porto strive for first quarter-final berth

Aalborg will be playing catch-up on Wednesday. Last week in Portugal, they trailed by six goals after 26 minutes (16:10) and seemed heading towards a tough defeat, but they had closed to gap to four at the break (18:14) and to three at the final buzzer.

With a squad including seven players – four Danes and three Swedes – who competed in the World Championship final in January, Aalborg hope this can be their season.

The Danish side have reached a European quarter-final before, in the EHF Cup 2003/04, but this would be their first on the continental top level.

Playing their 11^th EHF Champions League season, Porto are also striving for their first quarter-final berth. They had their finest hour in Europe two years ago, finishing third at the EHF Cup finals.

Porto won their first European match after the tragic passing of Alfredo Quintana by defeating Elverum 38:31 in the final group game, before adding last week’s win over Aalborg.

Line player Victor Iturriza netted eight times in the first leg to raise his tally for the season to 56, the most for any Porto player.

The winner of this play-offs tie will face SG Flensburg-Handewitt or HC PPD Zagreb for a place at the EHF FINAL4 in June.

TEXT: European Handball Federation