The play-offs of the Men’s Champions League is just around the corner. Ola Selby of GoHandball have ranked the twelve remaining teams.
Four teams: Aalborg Håndbold, Sporting CP, Barcelona, and Veszprem, are directly qualified for the Champions League quarterfinals.
The remaining eight teams that advanced from the main round will compete in the play-offs to determine which four will join the already qualified teams in the quarterfinals.
Ola Selby of GoHandball has ranked the twelve remaining teams in Power rankings – a ranking based on how the teams have performed so far during the European League season.
Here are the play-off matches:
Pick Szeged – PSG
Wisla Plock – Nantes
Kielce – Füchse Berlin
Dinamo Bucuresti – SC Magdeburg
1: Barcelona
Will it be the fourth title in the last five seasons for Barcelona? There’s a strong case for it. Granted, the end of Gonzalo Perez de Vargas’ Barcelona career was tragic as the legendary goalkeeper injured his knee and will miss the rest of the season, but Barca has the world’s best goalkeeper in Emil Nielsen, so they should manage just fine.
Barcelona is simply the best. They have an excellent coach, the best players, and the best team. While they did lose two away games in quick succession, first against Magdeburg and then against Aalborg, they won ten matches and drew two in the group stage.
It looks likely that Barcelona will defend their title from last season.
2: Aalborg Håndbold
The champion from last year wins again, and the runner-up from last year takes silver once more. Do I lack imagination? Perhaps. But between Aalborg and the team I predict to finish third, it’s much closer.
Aalborg has looked really strong since the coaching change, and they’ve barely lost any matches since then. Sure, they’ve lost to Zagreb and Kolstad away, but they’ve also beaten Barca and earned a strong point away against the home-strong Nantes in the final round.
Niklas Landin is still one of the best goalkeepers in the world, especially in crunch time. And they have a whole bunch of skilled players on the backcourt, most recently strengthened by what Aalborg hopes will be a revived Sander Sagosen in a familiar but new environment.
3: Veszprem
I could have just as easily ranked Veszprem first or second here, they’ve been that good this season. They won twelve matches in the group stage and only lost two – away to Sporting and then in the final round at home to Berlin (where the visitors clinched the win with just a few seconds left).
Veszprem has the best goal difference of all the teams in the Champions League, and that says a lot. Nedim Remili is high up in both the top scorer and assist rankings. And Veszprem has some excellent players across all positions.
Perhaps a small question mark on the goalkeeper position, especially compared to rivals Barca and Aalborg, although Rodrigo Corrales has been solid in several matches.
4: Füchse Berlin
I’m aware that Berlin lost five matches in the group stage. That’s quite a lot. On the other hand, they won nine matches, which is impressive given that they are debutants at this level.
Why do I rank Berlin as the fourth-best team? Mathias Gidsel. He’s second in the top scorer rankings, high up in the assist rankings, and is the world’s best player.
Which team would want to face Berlin going forward? None. Not with Gidsel in the team.
5: Nantes
The injury to Aymeric Minne, one of the best players in the Champions League throughout the season, has caused problems for Nantes. If Minne hadn’t been injured, I’d probably have ranked the team fourth, or maybe even higher.
This is primarily a strong home team. They lost four matches in total during the group stage, but at home, they were virtually unbeatable.
In Minne’s absence, it will be crucial for Julien Bos, who’s had a really solid season on the right back, and Thibaud Briet to step up. And you can always count on Valero Rivera to score goals.
6: SC Magdeburg
As everyone knows, Magdeburg has had an incredibly tough season with a multitude of injuries to key players from the start and up until now. And yes, the injuries have caused major issues, to the point where Magdeburg has actually lost more matches (seven losses) than they’ve won (six wins).
However, Magdeburg has looked stronger lately, especially after Felix Claar, the team’s most important player, made his comeback from his heel injury. Claar has been outstanding right away and could be the key player for a Magdeburg team that likely won’t make it to the Final Four this year, but still has the capacity to beat any team.
7: Sporting
I know it might seem rude or disrespectful of me to rank Sporting as the seventh-best team going into the play-offs, especially since they won eight matches, drew two, and only lost four in the group stage.
But here’s the thing: Kiko Costa is injured, and his participation for the rest of the season looks highly uncertain. And since Costa is Sporting’s best and most important player, this will naturally impact their chances of achieving something even greater than what they’ve already accomplished this season.
That said, they have a skilled coach, a top scorer in Martim Costa, high-class two-way player like Salvador Salvador, and the goalkeeper (André Kristensen) with the highest save percentage (35) among all goalkeepers in the Champions League.
8: Pick Szeged
Szeged, under the new coaching duo of Michael Apelgren and Jonas Källman, started the season with great inspiration and secured several impressive wins in the Champions League. And when they didn’t win, they often lost by just one goal.
Szeged is still clearly better than they’ve been in recent seasons, but their performances have dropped in the last few months, even though they’ve also faced some bad luck in crucial moments.
The potential is undoubtedly there in this squad. However, when the starting lineup is replaced by the second string, the quality also tends to drop.
9: PSG
Going forward, PSG doesn’t have many issues with their play. Kamil Syprzak is third in the top scorer rankings (often assisted by assist leader Luc Steins). And Elohim Prandi has taken further steps in terms of consistency.
However, the reason PSG lost five matches in the group stage isn’t related to their offense. They lost by 13 goals away to Veszprem and by 11 goals away to Sporting. No, the problems for PSG lie in their defense, or rather, the lack of strong defensive play.
In fact, PSG conceded the most goals of all the teams that advanced from the group stage. And that will pose problems for them in the knockout stages as well.
10: Dinamo București
Dinamo has managed to beat both Sporting and Berlin at home, but the other four wins came against teams that didn’t make it past the group stage. In fact, Bucuresti has had a tough time in those matches.
However, there is certainly quality in the team: Haniel Langaro, Stanislav Kasparek, Miklos Rosta, Haukur Thrastarson, and Ali Zein are all top-quality players.
11: Kielce
Wow, what a tough season it’s been for both Kielce as a team and for Alex and Daniel Dujshebaev. Especially the former, who hasn’t quite been recognizable (despite oddly being nominated for the world’s best player by the IHF).
It’s clear that there’s a lot of quality in this team, but something seems to be missing this season. Eight losses, one draw, and only five wins in the group stage for a team that appears to be heading in the wrong direction this year.
12: Wisla Plock
If you want to watch an open handball match with plenty of goals, you might want to avoid watching a game with Wisla Plock. They conceded fewer goals than any other team in the Champions League this season, but they also scored the fewest goals themselves.
The result of that? Five wins, one draw, and eight losses. They lost by a single goal to both PSG and Berlin, but also managed to beat both teams.
Xavier Sabate has stamped a clear identity on this team, which will have to rely on its defense in the play-offs.