2014–15 EHF Champions League

EHF Champions League

2014–15
The Lanxess Arena hosts the final
Tournament information
Sport	Handball
Dates	2014–2015
Teams	33 (qualification stage) 24 (group stage) 16 (knockout stage)
Final positions
Champions	Barcelona
Runner-up	MKB-MVM Veszprém
Tournament statistics
Matches played	148
Goals scored	7932 (53.59 per match)
Attendance	691,601 (4,673 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Momir Ilić (114 goals)

The 2014–15 VELUX EHF Champions League was the 55th edition of Europe's premier club handball competition and the 22nd edition under the current EHF Champions League format. SG Flensburg-Handewitt were the defending champions.

FC Barcelona Handbol defeated Veszprém KC 28–23 in the final to win their eighth EHF Champions League title. The record winners of the European top flight also claimed one trophy of the Champions Cup (the EHF Champions League forerunner) in 1991.

Overview

Team allocation

League positions of the previous season shown in parentheses (TH: Title holders). 21 teams were directly qualified for the group stage.

Group stage
Flensburg-HandewittTH (3rd)	Paris Saint-Germain (2nd)	MOL-Pick Szeged (2nd)	Vive Tauron Kielce (1st)
THW Kiel (1st)	Montpellier (3rd)	Chekhovskiye Medvedi (1st)	Wisła Płock (2nd)
Rhein-Neckar Löwen (2nd)	KIF Kolding København (1st)	Kadetten Schaffhausen (1st)	Alingsås HK (1st)
Barcelona (1st)	Aalborg (2nd)	Zagreb (1st)
Logroño (2nd)	Celje (1st)	Metalurg Skopje (1st)
Dunkerque (1st)	MKB-MVM Veszprém (1st)	Vardar (2nd)
Qualification tournament
Meshkov Brest (1st)	Haslum HK (CW)	Beşiktaş (1st)	Targos Bevo HC (1st)
HCM Constanța (1st)	Vojvodina (1st)	Tatran Prešov (1st)	Initia Hasselt (1st)
Porto (1st)	Motor Zaporizhzhia (1st)	Alpla HC Hard (1st)	Junior Fasano (1st)

Round and draw dates

Draws were held at the European Handball Federation headquarters in Vienna, Austria and the only exception was the VELUX EHF FINAL4 draw in the Botanic Garden of Cologne, Germany.

Phase	Round	Draw date	First leg	Second leg
Qualifying	Qualification tournaments	26 June 2014	5–7 September 2014
Group stage	Matchday 1	27 June 2014	24–28 September 2014
	Matchday 2		1–5 October 2014
	Matchday 3		8–12 October 2014
	Matchday 4		15–19 October 2014
	Matchday 5		12–16 November 2014
	Matchday 6		19–23 November 2014
	Matchday 7		26–30 November 2014
	Matchday 8		3–6 December 2014
	Matchday 9		11–15 February 2015
	Matchday 10		18–22 February 2015
Knockout stage	Last 16	24 February 2015	11–15 March 2015	18–22 March 2015
	Quarter-final	24 March 2015	8–12 April 2015	15–19 April 2015
Final Four (Cologne)	Semifinals	21 April 2015	30 May 2015 at Lanxess Arena
	Final		31 May 2015 at Lanxess Arena

Qualification stage

Main article: 2014–15 EHF Champions League qualifying

Twelve teams took part in the qualification tournaments. They were drawn into three groups of four teams, where they played a semifinal and a final or third place match. The winners of the qualification tournaments, played on 6–7 September 2014, qualified for the group stage, while the eliminated teams were transferred to the 2014–15 EHF Cup. The draw took place on 26 June 2014, at 14:00 local time, in Vienna, Austria.

Seedings

The seedings were published on 23 June 2014.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Motor Zaporizhzhia Meshkov Brest HCM Constanța	Vojvodina Porto Haslum HK	Tatran Prešov Alpla HC Hard Beşiktaş	Targos Bevo HC Initia Hasselt Junior Fasano

Qualification tournament 1

	Semifinals				Final
	6 September
	Meshkov Brest	36
					7 September
	Targos Bevo HC	23
					Meshkov Brest	26
	6 September
					Tatran Prešov	24
	Vojvodina	21
	Tatran Prešov	25
					Third place game
					7 September
					Targos Bevo HC	25
					Vojvodina	30

Qualification tournament 2

	Semifinals				Final
	5 September
	Motor Zaporizhzhia	36
					6 September
	Junior Fasano	20
					Motor Zaporizhzhia	30
	5 September
					Porto	26
	Porto	29
	Alpla HC Hard	25
					Third place game
					6 September
					Junior Fasano	26
					Alpla HC Hard	35

Qualification tournament 3

	Semifinals				Final
	6 September
	HCM Constanța	29
					7 September
	Initia Hasselt	20
					HCM Constanța	25
	6 September
					Beşiktaş	34
	Haslum HK	22
	Beşiktaş	29
					Third place game
					7 September
					Initia Hasselt	26
					Haslum HK	35

Group stage

Kiel

Rhein-Neckar

Flensburg

Barcelona

Logroño

Dunkerque

PSG

Montpellier

KIF

Aalborg

Celje

Veszprém

Szeged

Chekhov

Kadetten

Zagreb

Vardar

Metalurg

Kielce

Płock

Brest

Alingsås

Motor

Beşiktaş

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Location of teams of the 2014–15 EHF Champions League group stage.
Red: Group A; Green: Group B; Blue: Group C; Yellow: Group D.

Main article: 2014–15 EHF Champions League group stage

24 teams were drawn into four groups of six teams, where they played each other twice. The top four teams advanced to the knockout stage. The draw took place on 27 June 2014, at 18:00 local time, in Vienna, Austria.

Seedings

The seedings were published on 23 June 2014.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
THW Kiel Barcelona MKB-MVM Veszprém Vive Tauron Kielce	KIF Kolding København Metalurg Skopje Celje Dunkerque	Zagreb Chekhovskiye Medvedi Kadetten Schaffhausen Alingsås HK

Pot 4	Pot 5	Pot 6
Rhein-Neckar Löwen Logroño MOL-Pick Szeged Wisła Płock	Flensburg-Handewitt Aalborg Vardar Paris Saint-Germain	Montpellier Meshkov Brest Motor Zaporizhzhia Beşiktaş

Key to colours in group tables
Top four placed teams advanced to the last 16

Group A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		KIE	PSG	ZAG	LOG	MSH	MET
THW Kiel	10	9	0	1	322	259	+63	18		—	33–29	34–27	34–32	33–22	35–16
Paris Saint-Germain	10	6	0	4	297	266	+31	12		25–27	—	27–22	32–25	36–25	35–24
Zagreb	10	6	0	4	241	248	−7	12		27–25	25–24	—	31–30	25–23	19–17
Logroño	10	4	1	5	305	305	0	9		30–34	35–33	22–21	—	39–31	31–26
Meshkov Brest	10	2	2	6	267	293	−26	6		24–25	28–29	26–22	33–33	—	28–24
Metalurg Skopje	10	1	1	8	233	294	−61	3		27–42	22–27	20–22	29–28	27–27	—

Source:

Group B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		BAR	KOL	PŁO	FLE	ALI	BJK
Barcelona	10	8	1	1	338	280	+58	17		—	33–27	30–25	36–27	42–29	35–25
KIF Kolding København	10	6	2	2	292	273	+19	14		27–27	—	30–30	35–21	34–33	34–31
Wisła Płock	10	6	1	3	288	280	+8	13		34–31	28–29	—	31–29	28–25	28–19
Flensburg-Handewitt	10	6	0	4	288	277	+11	12		33–37	27–20	35–28	—	31–21	31–27
Alingsås HK	10	1	0	9	252	298	−46	2		28–38	19–23	22–23	22–27	—	27–24
Beşiktaş	10	1	0	9	253	303	−50	2		25–29	24–33	30–33	20–27	28–26	—

Source:

Group C

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		VES	VAR	RNL	MON	CEL	CHE
MKB-MVM Veszprém	10	9	0	1	300	262	+38	18		—	32–24	27–24	30–29	29–26	38–31
Vardar	10	7	1	2	313	289	+24	15		23–24	—	28–25	30–26	34–32	39–28
Rhein-Neckar Löwen	10	6	0	4	302	282	+20	12		32–25	28–35	—	35–24	31–27	34–29
Montpellier	10	3	2	5	293	317	−24	8		20–34	34–34	29–33	—	35–29	32–32
Celje	10	3	0	7	284	293	−9	6		21–24	26–27	32–28	27–30	—	29–25
Chekhovskiye Medvedi	10	0	1	9	300	349	−49	1		32–37	34–39	26–32	33–34	30–35	—

Source:

Group D

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		KSK	SZE	DUN	AAL	ZAP	KAD
Vive Tauron Kielce	10	10	0	0	312	271	+41	20		—	37–32	36–32	33–26	30–26	33–24
MOL-Pick Szeged	10	6	1	3	276	264	+12	13		26–27	—	23–21	23–23	27–26	34–24
Dunkerque	10	4	0	6	257	263	−6	8		25–28	24–25	—	21–26	31–29	29–25
Aalborg	10	2	3	5	256	269	−13	7		25–27	25–28	25–28	—	30–36	23–23
Motor Zaporizhzhia	10	3	0	7	283	284	−1	6		27–28	25–29	21–23	25–28	—	31–26
Kadetten Schaffhausen	10	2	2	6	264	297	−33	6		28–33	32–29	25–23	25–25	32–37	—

Source:

Knockout stage

Main article: 2014–15 EHF Champions League knockout stage

The top four placed teams of each group advance to the knockout stage. In the round of 16 and the quarterfinals, the teams will play a home-and away series to determine the four participants of the final four, which then determines the winner.

Last 16

The draw was held on 24 February 2015 at 12:30 in Vienna, Austria. The first legs were played on 11–15 March and the second legs on 18–22 March 2015.

Seedings

The seedings were published on 23 February 2015.

A team from Pot 1 will face a team from Pot 4, a Pot 2 team will play against a team from Pot 3.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
THW Kiel Barcelona MKB-MVM Veszprém Vive Tauron Kielce	Paris Saint-Germain KIF Kolding København Vardar MOL-Pick Szeged	Zagreb Wisła Płock Rhein-Neckar Löwen Dunkerque	Logroño Flensburg-Handewitt Montpellier Aalborg

Matches

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Logroño	54–68	MKB-MVM Veszprém	23–31	31–37
Montpellier	58–60	Vive Tauron Kielce	25–29	33–31
Aalborg	33–60	Barcelona	11–31	22–29
Flensburg-Handewitt	49–63	THW Kiel	21–30	28–33
Dunkerque	43–46	Paris Saint-Germain	21–23	22–23
Wisła Płock	52–57	Vardar	32–26	20–31
Rhein-Neckar Löwen	59–65	MOL-Pick Szeged	30–34	29–31
Zagreb	43–40	KIF Kolding København	22–17	21–23

Quarterfinals

The draw was held on 24 March 2015 at 11:30 in Vienna, Austria. The first legs were played on 8–12 April and the second legs on 15–19 April 2015.

Seedings

The seedings were published on 23 March 2015.

Pot 1	Pot 2
THW Kiel Barcelona MKB-MVM Veszprém Vive Tauron Kielce	Paris Saint-Germain Zagreb MOL-Pick Szeged Vardar

Matches

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Zagreb	44–68	Barcelona	23–25	21–43
Vardar	51–55	Vive Tauron Kielce	20–22	31–33
Paris Saint-Germain	52–58	MKB-MVM Veszprém	24–24	28–34
MOL-Pick Szeged	54–60	THW Kiel	31–29	23–31

Final four

The draw was held on 21 April 2015.

The final four will be held on 30–31 May 2015 at the Lanxess Arena, Cologne.

	Semi-finals				Final
	30 May
	Barcelona	33
					31 May
	Vive Tauron Kielce	28
					Barcelona	28
	30 May
					MKB-MVM Veszprém	23
	THW Kiel	27
	MKB-MVM Veszprém	31
					Third place
					31 May
					Vive Tauron Kielce	28
					THW Kiel	26

Top goalscorers

Statistics exclude qualifying round.

Rank	Player	Team	Goals
1	Momir Ilić	Veszprém	114
2	Kiril Lazarov	Barcelona	106
3	Mikkel Hansen	Paris	103
4	Karol Bielecki	Kielce	92
5	Timur Dibirov	Vardar	78
6	Zsolt Balogh	Szeged	76
	Marko Vujin	Kiel
8	Nikola Karabatić	Barcelona	75
9	Igor Karačić	Vardar	74
10	Alex Dujshebaev	Vardar	73

Awards

The All-star team of the Champions League 2014/15:

Position	Player
Goalkeeper	Roland Mikler (MKB-MVM Veszprém)
Right wing	Víctor Tomás (Barcelona)
Right back	Kiril Lazarov (Barcelona)
Centre back	Mikkel Hansen (Paris Saint-Germain)
Left back	Nikola Karabatić (Barcelona)
Left wing	Uwe Gensheimer (Rhein-Neckar Löwen)
Pivot	Renato Sulić (MKB-MVM Veszprém)
Best defender	Rene Toft Hansen (THW Kiel)
Best coach	Talant Dujshebaev (Vive Tauron Kielce)

Mikler Gensheimer Sulić Tomás Karabatić Hansen Lazarov Best Defender : Rene Toft Hansen

Best Coach: Talant Dujshebaev

See also

• 2014–15 EHF Cup
• 2014–15 EHF Challenge Cup

External links

• Official website