2022–23 EHF Champions League

The 2022–23 EHF Champions League was the 63rd edition of Europe's premier club handball tournament and the 30th edition under the current EHF Champions League format. It ran from 14 September 2022 to 18 June 2023.

EHF Champions League

2022–23
Tournament information
Sport	Handball
Location	Lanxess Arena (FINAL4)
Dates	14 September 2022–18 June 2023
Teams	16
Website	ehfcl.com
Final positions
Champions	SC Magdeburg
Runner-up	Barlinek Industria Kielce
Tournament statistics
Matches played	132
Goals scored	8230 (62.35 per match)
Attendance	587,183 (4,448 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Emil Wernsdorf Madsen (107 goals)
← 2021–22 2023–24 →

SC Magdeburg defeated Barlinek Industria Kielce 30–29 in the final to capture their fourth title.^[1]

Format

The tournament used the same format as the previous two seasons. The competition began with a group stage featuring sixteen teams divided into two groups. Matches were played in a double round-robin system with home-and-away fixtures, fourteen in total for each team. In Groups A and B, the top two teams automatically qualified for the quarter-finals, with teams ranked 3rd to 6th entered the playoff round.

The knockout stage included four rounds: the playoffs, quarter-finals, 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 (third-placed in group A plays sixth-placed group B; fourth-placed group A plays fifth-placed group B, etc.). 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. For this tournament, it was the Lanxess Arena.

Teams

Zagreb

GOG

Aalborg

Paris Saint Germain

Nantes

Magdeburg

Kiel

Pick Szeged

Veszprém

Porto

Kielce

Wisla Płock

Elverum

Dinamo Bucuresti

Celje

Barcelona

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

There were ten guaranteed places, with the six additional spots being awarded as wildcards by the EHF. The league winners of Germany, France, Spain, Hungary, Denmark, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal and Romania qualified for the group stage automatically.^[2][3] 22 teams applied for a place.^[4] Teams which have qualified for the 2022–23 EHF European League will have the opportunity to apply for an upgrade to the EHF Champions League. The final list was announced in June 2022.^[5]

Participating teams

SC Magdeburg (1st)	Barça (1st)	Paris Saint-Germain (1st)	OTP Bank - Pick Szeged (1st)
GOG Håndbold (1st)	Barlinek Industria Kielce (1st)	FC Porto (1st)	Dinamo București (1st)
THW Kiel (2nd)	HBC Nantes (WC)	Telekom Veszprém (WC)	Aalborg Håndbold (WC)
Orlen Wisła Płock (WC)	PPD Zagreb (WC)	Celje Pivovarna Laško (WC)	Elverum Håndball (WC)

• RK Vardar, who were originally to qualify as winners of the 2021–22 Macedonian Handball Super League, were removed from EHF competitions for this season due to financial issues.^[6]

Wildcard rejection

BM Granollers	Sporting CP	CS Minaur Baia Mare	Kadetten Schaffhausen
Ystads IF	HC Motor Zaporizhzhia

Group stage

Main article: 2022–23 EHF Champions League group stage

The draw for the group stage was held on 1 July 2022.^[5][7] The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four. From each pot, two teams were drawn into Group A and the other two in Group B. Teams from the same national association will not drawn into the same group.^[8]

A total of 11 national associations were represented in the group stage.

Group A

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		PAR	MAG	VES	GOG	BUC	PLO	ZAG	POR
1	Paris Saint-Germain	14	12	0	2	492	439	+53	24	Quarterfinals		—	33–37	37–35	41–36	33–26	37–33	40–31	32–30
2	SC Magdeburg	14	9	2	3	453	419	+34	20			22–29	—	32–25	36–34	34–33	33–27	35–25	41–36
3	Telekom Veszprém	14	8	2	4	449	429	+20	18	Playoffs		36–35	35–35	—	36–37	33–30	32–22	32–28	32–30
4	GOG Håndbold	14	7	1	6	459	454	+5	15			30–35	33–32	30–31	—	38–38	31–24	33–29	34–33
5	Dinamo București	14	5	3	6	416	429	−13	13			29–36	28–30	31–31	30–27	—	32–27	27–27	32–27
6	Orlen Wisła Płock	14	4	1	9	374	412	−38	9			26–32	25–24	26–30	31–27	26–28	—	26–30	27–23
7	PPD Zagreb	14	3	2	9	390	420	−30	8			30–33	25–31	29–26	27–31	28–29	26–26	—	29–23
8	FC Porto	14	2	1	11	407	438	−31	5			33–35	31–31	28–35	26–33	32–23	27–28	28–26	—

Source: EHF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Group B

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		BAR	KIE	NAN	THW	AAL	SZE	CEL	ELV
1	Barça	14	13	1	0	484	404	+80	27	Quarterfinals		—	32–28	34–29	26–24	32–26	35–25	38–30	40–30
2	Barlinek Industria Kielce	14	11	0	3	465	427	+38	22			31–32	—	40–33	40–37	33–28	37–30	36–28	37–33
3	HBC Nantes	14	7	1	6	478	451	+27	15[a]	Playoffs		33–37	30–33	—	38–30	35–28	35–30	31–32	41–30
4	THW Kiel	14	6	3	5	460	440	+20	15[a]			30–30	32–29	37–33	—	36–36	34–29	39–27	36–26
5	Aalborg Håndbold	14	6	1	7	445	438	+7	13			33–39	28–30	33–34	26–30	—	33–27	36–32	31–24
6	OTP Bank - Pick Szeged	14	5	1	8	426	452	−26	11			28–35	28–31	28–28	36–33	29–41	—	36–27	30–23
7	Celje Pivovarna Laško	14	3	0	11	412	475	−63	6			27–28	30–33	24–35	38–36	31–34	28–36	—	29–26
8	Elverum Håndball	14	1	1	12	398	481	−83	3			30–46	26–27	36–42	26–26	25–33	32–34	31–29	—

Source: EHF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
Notes:

1. Nantes 71–67 Kiel

Knockout stage

Main article: 2022–23 EHF Champions League knockout stage

Playoffs

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
OTP Bank - Pick Szeged	56–74	Telekom Veszprém	23–36	33–38
Orlen Wisła Płock	57–57 5–4 (p)	HBC Nantes	32–32	25–25
Aalborg Håndbold	54–60	GOG Håndbold	30–28	24–32
Dinamo București	60–72	THW Kiel	28–41	32–31

Quarterfinals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
THW Kiel	56–63	Paris Saint-Germain	27–31	29–32
GOG Håndbold	61–73	Barça	30–37	31–36
Orlen Wisła Płock	50–52	SC Magdeburg	22–22	28–30
Telekom Veszprém	56–60	Barlinek Industria Kielce	29–29	27–31

Final four

The final four was held at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany on 17 and 18 June 2023.

Bracket

	Semi-finals				Final
	17 June
	SC Magdeburg (pen.)	38 (2)
					18 June
	Barça	38 (1)
					SC Magdeburg (ET)	30
	17 June
					Barlinek Industria Kielce	29
	Paris Saint-Germain	24
	Barlinek Industria Kielce	25
					Third place
					18 June
					Barça	37
					Paris Saint-Germain	31

Final

18 June 2023 18:00	SC Magdeburg	30–29 (ET)	Barlinek Industria Kielce	Lanxess Arena, Cologne Attendance: 19,750 Referees: Lah, Sok (SLO)
	Smits 8	(13–15)	A. Dujshebaev 8
	2× 5× 1×	Report	1× 4×
	FT: 26–26 ET: 4–3

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[9]
1	Emil Wernsdorf Madsen	GOG Håndbold	107
2	Kamil Syprzak	Paris Saint-Germain	103
3	Arkadiusz Moryto	Barlinek Industria Kielce	100
4	Kay Smits	SC Magdeburg	98
5	Simon Pytlick	GOG Håndbold	94
6	Aleks Vlah	Celje Pivovarna Laško	88
7	Gísli Þorgeir Kristjánsson	SC Magdeburg	87
	Dika Mem	Barça
9	Elohim Prandi	Paris Saint-Germain	86
10	Lukas Jørgensen	GOG Håndbold	84
	Dainis Krištopāns	Paris Saint-Germain
	Rasmus Lauge	Telekom Veszprém