Semi-finals drawn for EHF Finals Men

European Handball Federation

20 April 2023, 11:30

The stage is set for the EHF Finals Men 2023 on 27/28 May in Flensburg. The two semi-final pairings were determined at a draw ceremony Thursday, as Montpellier HB are going to face Füchse Berlin, and Fraikin BM. Granollers are meeting Frisch Auf Göppingen.

After SC Magdeburg in 2021 and SL Benfica in 2022, who is going to become the third team to lift the EHF European League Men trophy?

Montpellier, who edged out Sporting CP by a single goal in the quarter-finals, never won the former EHF Cup – they lost the 2014 final to Szeged – but, of course, are two-time EHF Champions League winners, most recently in 2018.

They will take on the only team among the four semi-finalists that have played at EHF Finals before: Füchse, who lost the final of the inaugural edition in 2021 to fellow German side SC Magdeburg. On Tuesday, Füchse made up a four-goal deficit from the first leg against Kadetten Schaffhausen to get to the EHF Finals again.

Montpellier and Füchse met twice before: both teams won the respective home leg of their EHF European League quarter-final two years ago, with the German side advancing on goal difference.

Granollers became the talk of the town in international handball last Tuesday with their stunning victory over SG Flensburg-Handewitt in the Campushalle, the arena where the EHF Finals are staged next month.

The Spanish side hope to lift the trophy of Europe’s second-tier club competition for a third time, after previous EHF Cup triumphs in 1995 and 1996.

However, their opponents Göppingen are specialists in winning the second tier, having done so four times in the five finals they played since 2011. The German team outplayed last season’s EHF Finals contenders RK Nexe in the quarter-finals.

Granollers and Göppingen previously met each other in the group phase of the former EHF Cup in 2017, when Göppingen won both the home and away match.

Wiederer: "Expecting an exciting tournament"

The draw was conducted by EHF President Michael Wiederer, who underlined the high-quality lineup of the EHF Finals 2023.

“We are really expecting an exciting tournament in Flensburg,” Wiederer said. “It is impossible to guess what is going to happen there, just because of the quality of the teams.”

The playing order and throw-off times of the two semi-finals on Saturday 27 May will be announced in due time.