Champions League favourites preparing in Denmark
Champions League favourites preparing in Denmark
Two of the teams, whom many people consider to be among the favourites to win the EHF Champions League in the coming season, Rhein Neckar Löwen from Germany and Spanish FC Barcelona Borges, have both placed a considerable part of their preparations for the 2009/10 season in Denmark, where they are also both going to test their form against other Champions League teams.
Already at the end of this month, Rhein Neckar Löwen will set up a training camp in Copenhagen, where they are going to meet Danish champions KIF Kolding in the Copenhagen suburb Glostrup on Tuesday July 29. It is absolutely no coincidence that this match is taking place exactly in Glostrup, as the Dane Jesper Nielsen from the company Kasi Group, who is sponsor of Rhein Neckar Löwen, is also the main sponsor of the local second league team, AG Håndbold.
Denmark’s other CL participant, FCK Håndbold, will also get the pleasure of meeting Rhein Neckar Löwen. Their test match against the strong Bundesliga team will take place a day earlier, on July 28th on FCK’s home ground in Frederiksberg Opvisningshal. Rhein Neckar Löwen will then end their stay in Denmark with a match against AG Håndbold on July 31st.
Meeting between Group D teams
FC Barcelona will wait until the middle of August to go to Denmark, where the Spanish top team has had successful training camps before. During their Danish training camp they will be playing test matches against the Danish league teams Skjern Håndbold, KIF Kolding and Nordsjælland Håndbold.
The match against Kolding in Odense on August 19th is likely to draw extra interest, as Kolding and Barcelona are also in the same group – Group D – in the Champions League. In this competition, their first meeting will take place in the Palau Blaugrana of Barcelona between October 14th and October 18th.
Danish champions Kolding have also planned a rather international preparation phase for the upcoming season in the domestic league as well as in the Champions League. Apart from the two above mentioned tests against two of Europe’s probably strongest club teams, Kolding are going to play test matches against quite a lot of Scandinavian teams – Norwegian champions Fyllingen as well as Swedish league teams Drott Halmstad, Sävehof, Skövde and Lugi Lund, apart from matches against two Danish second league teams.
