2021–22 EHF Champions League

This article is about the men's competition. For the women's competition, see 2021–22 Women's EHF Champions League.

The 2021–22 EHF Champions League was the 62nd edition of Europe's premier club handball tournament and the 29th edition under the current EHF Champions League format, running from 15 September 2021 to 19 June 2022. Barça won the competition, defeating Łomza Vive Kielce on penalties in the final.^[1]

EHF Champions League

2021–22
Tournament information
Sport	Handball
Location	Lanxess Arena (FINAL4)
Dates	15 September 2021–19 June 2022
Teams	16
Website	ehfcl.com
Final positions
Champions	Barça
Runner-up	Łomża Vive Kielce
Tournament statistics
Matches played	126
Goals scored	7682 (60.97 per match)
Attendance	432,271 (3,431 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Aleix Gómez (104 goals)
← 2020–21 2022–23 →

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, each local health department allowed a different number of spectators.

Format

The competition began with a group stage featuring 16 teams divided in two groups. Matches were played in a double round-robin system with home-and-away fixtures. In Groups A and B, the top two teams qualified for the quarterfinals, with teams ranked third to sixth entering the playoffs.

The knockout stage included four rounds: the playoffs, quarterfinals, and a final-four tournament comprising two semifinals and the final. In the playoffs, eight teams were paired against each other in two-legged home-and-away matches. The four aggregate winners of the playoffs advanced to the quarterfinals, joining the top-two teams of Groups A and B. The eight quarterfinalist teams were paired against each other in two-legged home-and-away matches, with the four aggregate winners qualifying to the final-four tournament.

In the final four tournament, the semifinals and the final were played as single matches at a pre-selected host venue.

Teams

Brest

Zagreb

Aalborg

Paris Saint Germain

Montpellier

Flensburg Handewitt

Kiel

Pick Szeged

Veszprém

Vardar

Porto

Kielce

Elverum

Dinamo Bucuresti

Barcelona

Motor

Location of teams of the 2022–23 EHF Champions League group stage.
Red: Group A; Blue: Group B.

The final list of 16 participants was revealed by the EHF Executive Committee in June 2021. Ten teams were registered according to fixed places, while six were granted wild cards.^[2][3] On 29 June, the final list was revealed.^[4] Although, in the final list announcement, the EHF said that if RK Vardar did not pay a fine for failing to play Champions League games in the previous season, they would be disqualified and replaced with RK Gorenje Velenje, who was the standby team. However, this never materialised.

Participating teams

THW Kiel (1st)	Paris Saint-Germain (1st)	Barça (1st)	Pick Szeged (1st)
RK Vardar (1st)	Łomża Vive Kielce (1st)	Aalborg Håndbold (1st)	FC Porto (1st)
PPD Zagreb (1st)	SG Flensburg-Handewitt (2nd)	Meshkov Brest (WC)	Montpellier Handball (WC)
Telekom Veszprém (WC)	Elverum Håndball (WC)	Dinamo București (WC)	Motor (WC)

Wildcard rejection

IK Sävehof	GOG Håndbold	Orlen Wisła Płock	Sporting CP
RK Gorenje Velenje	Kadetten Schaffhausen

Group stage

Main article: 2021–22 EHF Champions League group stage

The draw took place on 2 July 2021.^[5]

Group A

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		AAL	KIE	SZE	MON	VAR	ELV	ZAG	BRE
1	Aalborg Håndbold	14	11	0	3	453	410	+43	22	Quarterfinals		—	35–33	34–30	36–28	33–29	32–27	31–25	34–33
2	THW Kiel	14	10	1	3	427	395	+32	21			31–27	—	32–32	35–26	32–30	41–36	36–28	10–0
3	Pick Szeged	14	8	3	3	412	392	+20	19	Playoffs		31–28	30–26	—	29–29	34–31	30–34	30–21	28–26
4	Montpellier Handball	14	7	3	4	424	409	+15	17			31–33	37–30	29–29	—	25–28	39–32	24–23	32–26
5	RK Vardar	14	6	1	7	379	368	+11	13			30–28	26–29	27–30	25–31	—	39–30	20–19	35–27
6	Elverum Håndball	14	3	2	9	417	449	−32	8[a]			28–34	30–31	24–27	30–37	27–27	—	30–25	32–33
7	PPD Zagreb	14	3	2	9	351	385	−34	8[a]			24–34	27–28	26–24	22–25	23–22	27–27	—	31–24
8	Meshkov Brest	14	1	2	11	342	397	−55	4			30–33	30–33	25–28	31–31	0–10	27–30	30–30	—

Source: EHF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
Notes:

1. Elverum 57–52 Zagreb

Group B

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		KIE	BAR	PAR	VES	POR	FLE	BUC	MOT
1	Łomża Vive Kielce	14	10	0	4	449	415	+34	20[a]	Quarterfinals		—	29–27	38–33	32–29	39–33	37–29	34–29	33–27
2	Barça	14	9	2	3	420	369	+51	20[a]			30–32	—	30–27	35–30	38–31	29–22	36–32	36–25
3	Paris Saint-Germain	14	8	2	4	452	396	+56	18	Playoffs		32–27	28–28	—	39–40	33–19	33–30	41–30	40–32
4	Telekom Veszprém	14	8	1	5	449	423	+26	17			35–33	29–28	34–31	—	28–28	28–23	47–32	36–29
5	FC Porto	14	4	3	7	375	408	−33	11			29–27	33–33	30–39	23–30	—	28–27	31–32	10–0
6	SG Flensburg-Handewitt	14	4	2	8	381	401	−20	10			25–33	21–25	27–27	30–27	26–26	—	37–30	34–27
7	Dinamo București	14	4	0	10	415	470	−55	8[b]			32–29	30–35	31–39	31–29	26–27	20–28	—	33–29
8	Motor	14	4	0	10	312	371	−59	8[b]			25–26	0–10	0–10	29–27	30–27	31–22	28–27	—

Source: EHF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
Notes:

1. Kielce 61–57 Barça
2. Dinamo 60–57 Motor

Knockout stage

Main article: 2021–22 EHF Champions League knockout stage

Playoffs

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
SG Flensburg-Handewitt	60–57	Pick Szeged	25–21	35–36
Elverum Håndball	60–67	Paris Saint-Germain	30–30	30–37
FC Porto	56–64	Montpellier Handball	29–29	27–35
RK Vardar	53–61	Telekom Veszprém	22–30	31–31

Quarterfinals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Telekom Veszprém	71–66	Aalborg Håndbold	36–29	35–37
Montpellier Handball	50–61	Łomża Vive Kielce	28–31	22–30
Paris Saint-Germain	62–63	THW Kiel	30–30	32–33
SG Flensburg-Handewitt	53–60	Barça	29–33	24–27

Final four

The final four was held at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany on 18 and 19 June 2022.

Bracket

	Semi-finals				Final
	18 June
	THW Kiel	30
					19 June
	Barça	34
					Barça (Pen.)	32 (5)
	18 June
					Łomża Vive Kielce	32 (3)
	Telekom Veszprém	35
	Łomża Vive Kielce	37
					Third place
					19 June
					THW Kiel (Pen.)	34 (3)
					Telekom Veszprém	34 (1)

Final

19 June 2022 18:00	Barça	37–35 (ET)	Łomża Vive Kielce	Lanxess Arena, Cologne Attendance: 19,250 Referees: Gubica, Milošević (CRO)
	Gómez 10	(14–13)	Moryto 6
	3×	Report	4×
	FT: 28–28 ET: 4–4 Pen: 5–3

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[6]
1	Aleix Gómez	Barça	104
2	Dika Mem	Barça	100
3	Petar Nenadić	Telekom Veszprém	93
4	Felix Claar	Aalborg Håndbold	88
	Gašper Marguč	Telekom Veszprém
6	Kamil Syprzak	Paris Saint-Germain	86
7	Yahia Omar	Telekom Veszprém	83
8	Tobias Grøndahl	Elverum Håndball	81
	Hampus Wanne	SG Flensburg-Handewitt
10	Arkadiusz Moryto	Łomża Vive Kielce	79

Awards

The all-star team was announced on 17 June 2022.[7] Position Player Goalkeeper Niklas Landin Jacobsen (THW Kiel) Right wing Aleix Gómez (Barça) Right back Dika Mem (Barça) Centre back Kentin Mahé (Telekom Veszprém) Left back Petar Nenadić (Telekom Veszprém) Left wing Hampus Wanne (SG Flensburg-Handewitt) Pivot Kamil Syprzak (Paris Saint-Germain) Final four MVP Artsem Karalek (Łomża Vive Kielce) Best defender Hendrik Pekeler (THW Kiel) Best young player Tobias Grøndahl (Elverum Håndball) Best coach Talant Dujshebaev (Łomża Vive Kielce)

Landin Wanne Syprzak Gómez Nenadić Mahé Mem Best Defender : Hendrik Pekeler Best Coach: Talant Dujshebaev