The 2015–16 EHF Cup was the 35th edition of the EHF Cup, the second most important European handball club competition organised by the European Handball Federation (EHF), and the fourth edition since the merger with the EHF Cup Winners' Cup.

EHF Cup
2015–16
Tournament information
SportHandball
Dates5 September 201515 May 2016
Teams69 (qualification stage)
16 (group stage)
Final positions
ChampionsGermany Frisch Auf Göppingen
Runner-upFrance HBC Nantes
Tournament statistics
Top scorer(s)Spain Ferran Solé
(70 goals)

Qualification stage edit

The qualification stage consisted of three rounds, which were played as two-legged ties using a home-and-away system. In the draws for each round, teams were allocated into two pots, with teams from Pot 1 facing teams from Pot 2. The winners of each pairing (highlighted in bold) qualified for the following round.

For each round, teams listed first played the first leg at home. In some cases, teams agreed to play both matches at the same venue.

Round 1 edit

A total of 24 teams entered the draw for the first qualification round, which was held on Tuesday, 22 July 2015. The first legs were played on 6–7 September and the second legs were played on 13–14 September 2015.

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Dinamo București   62–48   Energia Lignitul Pandurii Târgu Jiu 38–24 24–24
Hubo Initia Hasselt   70–45a   Merzifon Belediye Hentbol SK 37–21 33–24
RK Poreč   46–42b   Maccabi Rishon Lezion 20–18 26–24
HC Fregata-Burgas   38–54   KH BESA Famiglia 18–24 20–30
GRK Varaždin 1930   47–36   A.S.D. Romagna Handball 26–16 21–20
PGU-Kartina TV Tiraspol   50–76c   NMC Górnik Zabrze 25–40 25–36
Põlva Serviti   53–49   Dragūnas Klaipėda 29–26 24–23
Ystad IF HF   76–48   Handball Käerjeng 41–28 35–20
HB Dudelange   50–68d   Haslum Handballklubb 27–34 23–34
KRAS/Volendam   64–41e   HC Lovćen 34–23 30–18
TSV St. Otmar St. Gallen   67–55   Riihimäki Cocks 34–24 33–21
SSV Bozen Loacker   50–50f (a)   Haukar 30–24 20–26
Notes

Round 2 edit

A total of 32 teams entered the draw for the second qualification round, which was held on Tuesday, 22 July 2015. Among these teams were 12 winners of the previous round.

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
AC Diomidis Argous   41–61a   Dinamo București 21–26 20–35
Csurgói KK   59–46   Pogoń Szczecin 29–19 30–27
ØIF Arendal   65–43b   KH BESA Famiglia 34–18 31–25
Talent M.A.T. Plzeň   54–49   RK Poreč 27–24 27–25
Pfadi Winterthur   52–44   Põlva Serviti 31–24 21–20
Hubo Initia Hasselt   48–43   RK Spartak Vojput 27–20 21–23
Permskie Medvedi   54–55   Ystads IF 30–28 24–27
CSM București   50–47   Bregenz 28–24 22–23
TSV St. Otmar St. Gallen   53–52   Alingsås HK 27–25 26–27
RK Nexe   62–41   GRK Varaždin 1930 30–20 32–31
Haukar   63–44c   HC Zomimak-M 34–20 29–24
Team Tvis Holstebro   64–63   Sporting CP 36–31 28–32
NMC Górnik Zabrze   54–52   ZTR Zaporizhia 28–25 26–27
Haslum Handballklubb   53–60   RK Borac m:tel 28–29 25–31
KRAS/Volendam   55–64   SKA Minsk 25–32 30–32
Chambery Savoie Handball   66–40   HC Sporta Hlohovec 35–12 31–28
Notes

Round 3 edit

A total of 32 teams entered the draw for the third qualification round, which was held on Tuesday, 21 October 2015. Among these teams 16 winners of the previous round.

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Pfadi Winterthur   59–48   KS Azoty-Puławy 29–25 30–23
Ystads IF   59–48   Grundfos Tatabanya KC 28–28 31–20
Maribor Branik   52–57   Dinamo București 27–26 25–31
Alpla HC Hard   46–68   SKA Minsk 23–33 23–35
RK Gorenje Velenje   52–61   Team Tvis Holstebro 25–29 27–32
Aalborg Handball   62–48   TSV St. Otmar St. Gallen 30–20 32–28
Hubo Initia Hasselt   46–52   Helvetia Anaitasuna 20–28 26–24
RK Borac m:tel   52–58   OCI-LIONS 29–31 23–27
Talent M.A.T. Plzeň   51–66   Bjerringbro-Silkeborg 28–31 23–35
RK Nexe   44–48   HBC Nantes 26–26 18–22
Füchse Berlin   61–65   Chambery Savoie Handball 31–31 30–34
NMC Górnik Zabrze   58–77   Frisch Auf Göppingen 29–39 29–38
CSM București   60–53   Frigoríficos del Morrazo 31–24 29–29
SC Magdeburg   65–61   Csurgói KK 42–37 23–24
Haukar   46–59   Saint-Raphael Var Handball 28–29 18–30
Fraikin BM. Granollers   55–49   ØIF Arendal 29–21 26–28

Group stage edit

Location of teams of the 2015–16 EHF Cup group stage.
  Red: Group A;   Green: Group B;   Blue: Group C;   Yellow: Group D.

Draw and format edit

The draw of the EHF Cup group phase took place on Thursday, 3 December 2015, at 11:00 CET. The 16 teams allocated into four pots were drawn into four groups of four teams. The country protection rule was applied, i.e. two clubs from the same country could not face each other in the same group.

In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The matchdays were 13–14 February, 20–21 February, 27–28 February, 5–6 March, 19–20 March, and 26–27 March 2016.

If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings (in descending order):

  1. number of points in matches of all teams directly involved;
  2. goal difference in matches of all teams directly involved;
  3. higher number of plus goals in matches of all teams directly involved;
  4. goal difference in all matches of the group;
  5. higher number of plus goals in all matches of the group;

If no ranking can be determined, a decision shall be obtained by drawing lots. Lots shall be drawn by the EHF, if possible in the presence of a responsible of each club.

Seeding edit

On 3 December 2015, EHF announced the composition of the group phase seeding pots.

Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4
  Fraikin BM. Granollers   SC Magdeburg   Dinamo București   Aalborg Handball
  OCI-Lions   Team Tvis Holstebro   HBC Nantes   Frisch Auf Göppingen
  SKA Minsk   Bjerringbro-Silkeborg   Pfadi Winterthur   Saint-Raphael Var Handball
  Chambery Savoie Handball   Helvetia Anaitasuna   Ystads IF   CSM București

Group A edit

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification MAG GRA DIN AAL
1   SC Magdeburg (A) 6 4 0 2 184 162 +22 8 Advance to knockout stage 32–28 39–22 25–19
2   Fraikin BM. Granollers (A) 6 3 1 2 172 165 +7 7 34–29 28–29 24–24
3   Dinamo Bucuresti (E) 6 2 1 3 166 181 −15 5 33–34 26–27 28–23
4   Aalborg Handball (E) 6 1 2 3 147 161 −14 4 26–25 25–31 28–28
Updated to match(es) played on 27 March 2016. Source: [1]
(A) Advance to a further round; (E) Eliminated

Group B edit

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification NAN GÖP HOL OCI
1   HBC Nantes (A) 6 5 0 1 176 151 +25 10 Advance to knockout stage 27–24 32–23 30–24
2   Frisch Auf Göppingen (A) 6 4 0 2 198 161 +37 8 27–26 36–23 40–20
3   Team Tvis Holstebro (E) 6 3 0 3 167 180 −13 6 27–28 34–31 29–24
4   OCI-Lions (E) 6 0 0 6 154 203 −49 0 26–33 31–40 29–31
Updated to match(es) played on 27 March 2016. Source: [2]
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(A) Advance to a further round; (E) Eliminated

Group C edit

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification SIL RAP WIN MIN
1   Bjerringbro-Silkeborg (A) 6 4 1 1 168 155 +13 9 Advance to knockout stage 31−26 27–27 32–26
2   Saint-Raphael Var Handball (A) 6 3 1 2 165 165 0 7 23–25 28–28 31–29
3   Pfadi Winterthur (E) 6 1 2 3 160 162 −2 4 25–28 21–24 32–24
4   SKA Minsk (E) 6 2 0 4 169 180 −11 4 28–25 31–33 31−27
Updated to match(es) played on 27 March 2016. Source: [3]
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(A) Advance to a further round; (E) Eliminated

Group D edit

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification CHA YST BUC HEL
1   Chambery Savoie Handball (A) 6 4 2 0 161 141 +20 10 Advance to knockout stage 32–22 23–23 26–23
2   Ystads IF (E) 6 3 1 2 159 167 −8 7 26–27 29–28 32–31
3   CSM Bucuresti (E) 6 1 3 2 152 156 −4 5 25–25 27–27 27–24
4   Helvetia Anaitasuna (E) 6 1 0 5 150 158 −8 2 22–28 22–23 28–22
Updated to match(es) played on 27 March 2016. Source: [4]
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(A) Advance to a further round; (E) Eliminated

Ranking of the second-placed teams edit

The ranking of the second-placed teams was carried out on the basis of the team's results in the group stage. Because the French side HBC Nantes, the organizers of the Final 4 tournament, finished on top of their group they qualified directly to the final tournament and only the top three second-placed teams qualified to the quarter-finals.

Grp Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
B   Frisch Auf Göppingen 6 4 0 2 198 161 +37 8
A   Fraikin BM. Granollers 6 3 1 2 172 165 +7 7
C   Saint-Raphael Var Handball 6 3 1 2 165 165 0 7
D   Ystads IF 6 3 1 2 159 167 −8 7
Source: [citation needed]

Knockout stage edit

Quarter-finals edit

Draw and format edit

Because the hosts of the Final 4 tournament, HBC Nantes, finished the group stage among the group winners, they have clinched the direct ticket to the final weekend and decided that only three quarter-finals were played for the remaining spots in the final tournament.[1] The draw of the EHF Cup quarter-finals took place on Tuesday 29 March 2016 at the EHF headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Six teams were positioned into two pots. Teams from the same group could not face each other in the quarter-finals.[1] The country protection rule was not applied for the quarter-finals. Therefore, there were two national duels in this round.[2]

In the quarter-finals, teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis, with the teams from second pot playing the first leg at home. The first pot contained the three group winners and the second pot contained the top three second-placed teams.[1]

Pot 1
  SC Magdeburg
  Bjerringbro-Silkeborg
  Chambery Savoie Handball
Pot 2
  Fraikin BM Granollers
  Frisch Auf Göppingen
  Saint-Raphael Var Handball
Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Fraikin Granollers   56–56   Bjerringbro-Silkeborg 30–24 26–32
Saint-Raphael Var Handball   52–54   Chambery Savoie Handball 30–25 22–29
Frisch Auf Göppingen   58–54   SC Magdeburg 31–25 27–29

Final four edit

 
Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
14 May
 
 
  Chambery Savoie25
 
15 May
 
  FA Göppingen28
 
  FA Göppingen32
 
14 May
 
  HBC Nantes26
 
  BM Granollers26
 
 
  HBC Nantes27
 
Third place
 
 
15 May
 
 
  Chambery Savoie21
 
 
  BM Granollers25

Top goalscorers edit

Rank Name Team Goals
1   Ferran Solé   Fraikin BM. Granollers 70
2   Marcel Schiller   Frisch Auf Göppingen 69
3   Robert Weber   SC Magdeburg 66
4   Valero Rivera Folch   HBC Nantes 59
5   Javier Humet   CSM Bucuresti 58
  Michael Damgaard   SC Magdeburg 58

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b c "Follow the EHF Cup quarter-finals draw on Periscope". EHF official website. 29 March 2016. Archived from the original on 2 June 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  2. ^ "National duels mark the way to EHF Cup Finals". EHF official website. 29 March 2016. Archived from the original on 2 June 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2016.

External links edit