Last three EC draws of the season

Last three EC draws of the season

In one week’ s time there will be only last ten teams left in the men’s European Cups competitions as the list of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 in Cologne, the EHF Cup Finals in Nantes and the Challenge Cup final participants will be confirmed. Last three draws of the EC will follow in three different locations.

Draw of the VELUX EHF FINAL4

The City of Cologne will draw the interest of all handball fans even before the top four continental teams will meet there on 1 and 2 June in the final race for the elusive trophy of the VELUX EHF Champions League.

Exactly one month before the final match of the season the draw of the 2013 VELUX EHF FINAL4 will take place in the German Sports & Olympic Museum in Cologne on 2 May at 11:00 hrs local time.

The draw of the fourth edition of the premium class sport event will determine both semi-finals pairings. Before the draw the official press conference will take place. For the first time the whole event will be streamed live on ehfTV.com.

The playing times of the final weekend played in the sold-out LANXESS Arena in front of 20,000 spectators have already been set. On Saturday 1 June the Semi-final 1 will start at 15:15 hrs local time followed by the throw-off of the Semi-final 2 at 18:00 hrs. On Sunday the third place match and the final will take place at the same time slots. The order of play will be finalised only following the coordination of TV requirements.

The first leg matches of quarter-finals have been already played and out of eight applicants for four tickets, HSV Hamburg seem to be the closest to the trip to Cologne as they won away against SG Flensburg Handewitt 32:26. BM Atlético Madrid played an impressive first leg at Palacio Vistalegre against the domestic arch-rivals from FC Barcelona Intersport (25:20) and KS Vive Targi Kielce won in Skopje against home team HC Metalurg 27:25, no matter what the result of the second leg will be, one VELUX EHF FINAL4 debutant is guaranteed.

The defending champions THW Kiel face a tough task in the form of an away match at MKB Veszprém KC, especially after having gained only one goal lead at home (32:31).

EHF Cup Finals

Tour of Bretagne in Nantes will host the draw of the premiere edition of the EHF Cup Finals on Tuesday 30 April at 11:00 hrs local time. The French city will also play host to the final weekend on 18 and 19 May as the four best teams of the newly formatted competition merged from the old EHF Cup and the Cup Winners’ Cup will make it to the attractive tournament.

No early judgments can be made after the first leg of the quarter-finals as KIF Kolding tied with Team Tvis Holstebro 24:24 in an all-Danish encounter, Slovenian team RK Branik Maribor also drew with the winners of the last year’s EHF Cup, Frisch Auf Göppingen, 26:26 and SC Magdeburg beat their German Bundesliga rivals Rhein Neckar Löwen 31:27.

Challenge Cup Final

Parallel to the EHF Cup Finals draw in Nantes also the draw of the home right for the Men’s Challenge Cup Final will be carried out at the EHF Office in Vienna (Tuesday 30 April, 11:00 hrs local time).

After last weekend’s first leg matches of the semi-finals SKA Minsk and CSU Suceava are closer to the final as Belarusian club won away on the court of Runar IL in Norway 32:29 and the Romanian side beat Luxembourgish team Handball Esch 23:21. The first leg of the final will be played on 18/19 May, the second leg will follow one week later.