SUMMARY: All set for EHF Finals Men in Hamburg

• pre-match day at the EHF Finals Men 2024 in Hamburg
• Friday is arrival day for Flensburg, Löwen, and Füchse; the only non-German team, Dinamo, have already arrived on Thursday
• the head coach and key players of all four teams speak with journalists in online media calls
• find out all you need to know about the EHF Finals Men in our facts and figures overview
• if you fancy a trip to Hamburg, then hurry up and grab the last tickets here
• learn how to stay informed and watch the matches in our how to follow guide
• Eric Willemsen reporting live from Hamburg; all photos © kolektiff images

Friday 24 May

19:30

While we still await the arrival of Löwen at the team hotel in Hamburg later this evening, we close our live blog for today. Make sure to join us again around noon on Saturday as we are back for coverage of the two semi-finals:

• 15:00 CEST: SG Flensburg Handewitt vs Dinamo Bucuresti
• 18:00 CEST: Rhein-Neckar Löwen vs Füchse Berlin

We leave you with this interesting feature by EHF journalist Björn Pazen on Juri Knorr, who has recovered from injury in time to lead his Löwen at these EHF Finals.

Gute Nacht aus Hamburg!

19:02

The fun part in the build-up to a big event like the EHF Finals Men is the discussion about who's hot and who's not. Who arrives in good form, who brings in the best experience, who has the broadest squad, or in other words: who is the favourite to lift the title on Sunday?

EHF journalist Björn Pazen has ranked the four teams in our latest power ranking piece. And the predicted winners are...

18:26

While final tournaments of big competitions are usually decided by the more experienced players, we always see some young talents rising to the occasion. Maybe at the EHF Finals Men 2024 we see one of the seven Respect Your Talent alumni shining in the spotlights?! EHF journalist Björn Pazen has taken a closer look at them in this feature.

18:08

The defending champions are in the house! Füchse have arrived at the team hotel in Hamburg, 24 hours before they meet domestic rivals Löwen.

"We are very excited about Hamburg, we are going into the tournament as defending champions and we will compete there with the self-confidence of a defending champion," said head coach Jaron Siewert earlier today at the team's media call.

17:43

The 2024 edition in Hamburg is the fourth EHF Finals Men, after the revamp of the European club competitions in the 2020/21 season. For the first time the EHF Finals are held at a neutral venue – or better: for the first time on purpose. Of course, Flensburg last year turned out to be a neutral venue after SG failed to qualify for the event they were hosting.

Here is an interesting ranking after the first three EHF Finals. Nine different clubs have competed at those events; Füchse, Magdeburg, and Plock are the only teams who have done so twice, with Füchse now even entering for the third time.

Füchse lead the standings, but the only team that competed at the EHF Finals and has not lost a match... is Benfica, who set Lisbon on fire by lifting the trophy in front of their home crowd two years ago.

By the way, this and much, much more info and stats on the EHF Finals and the four teams competing is available in the official media guide (PDF).

17:07

A bus with "FL - SG 1" on its license plate... that can only mean that SG Flensburg-Handewitt are arriving in Hamburg. Ten years after that stunning EHF Champions League triumph, they hope to add another European trophy to their cabinet. Remember, Flensburg are the only club that has won four different EHF trophies: EHF Cup in 1997; City Cup in 1999; Cup Winners’ Cup in 2001 and 2012; EHF Champions League in 2014. And EHF European League 2024?!

Their slogan "Ohne Grenzen" suggests there are no limits... Or do they just mean they did not have to cross a border in order to get to Hamburg – unlike their semi-final opponents Dinamo, who have travelled all the way from Bucharest already on Thursday evening.

16:27

Our social media team just posted this visual on the official EHF European League X account. Incredible to see how dominant German clubs have been in Europe's second-tier club competition. In the last 20 years, we had only two (= 2!) winners from another country: in 2014, when Pick Szeged lifted the EHF Cup; and in 2022, when SL Benfica won their home EHF Finals.

In Hamburg, we have not a hosting club taking part, but Flensburg, Löwen, and Füchse might feel they have home matches, playing in Germany. Can Dinamo, the brave challengers from Romania, stand the heat? 

15:54

Apart from those media calls this afternoon, we have been talking to all four clubs at the EHF Finals Men lately to see how they get ready for and what they expect from the season-ending tournament in Hamburg. Here is the collection of features, written by EHF journalists Ida Hummeluhr, Björn Pazen, and Béla Müller:

15:28

Xavi Pascual has won more than 60 trophies during his time with Barça, now he can win his first international title with Dinamo Bucuresti. The star coach has led the Romanian side to the domestic double of league and cup titles this season, but the EHF European League is obviously a different story.

Dinamo's chances are hard to judge. Some see them as underdogs here in Hamburg, others believe they have a squad of EHF Champions League quality and could end up lifting the trophy on Sunday evening. Either way, the only certainty Pascual has, is that his team will meet two German teams over the next two days, starting with SG Flensburg-Handewitt in the tournament opener on Saturday at 15:00 CEST.

No wonder that during the media call this afternoon, Pascual joked about playing at a German cup tournament:

15:14

You know the images from other final tournaments of EHF Champions and European League seasons: the head coach and key players gathering in their hotel lobby to talk face-to-face with journalists on the eve of the semi-finals... but things are a bit different here in Hamburg.

With the three German teams opting to do their final preparations in their home environment before travelling to Hamburg, the traditional media calls have been done online earlier this afternoon.

You can read the best quotes from all four teams in this flash quotes overview.

14:46

So, we have an interesting line-up here in Hamburg, with Flensburg, Löwen, and Füchse all representing the host nation, and Dinamo from Romania. The three German sides used the opportunity they have thanks to shorter travel distances to train in their home arenas and come to Hamburg only later during the day on Friday. Not so for Dinamo, who arrived on Thursday and trained in a local sports hall here in Hamburg.

14:30

Guten Tag aus Hamburg!

Welcome to the live blog for the EHF Finals Men 2024. We are just over 24 hours away from the throw-off of the semi-final action at Barclays Arena, so let's get ready for what promises to be a captivating finish to another great season in the EHF European League Men.

Maybe we best start with some interesting facts and figures, gathered by EHF journalist Björn Pazen, about the EHF European League season and the EHF Finals specifically: