The first leg of the Last 16 provided some teams with a substantial lead, most notably RK Gorenje Velenje and Kadetten Schaffhausen, who take a seven- and six-goal buffer, respectively, into the return leg.
However, most ties are still wide open ahead of Tuesday’s second leg, as titleholders SC Magdeburg (draw at Sporting CP), last year’s finalists Füchse Berlin (one-goal defeat at HBC Nantes) and SL Benfica (four-goal defeat at Fenix Toulouse Handball) all face a true challenge.
Last season’s EHF Finals Men contenders Orlen Wisla Plock and Danish side GOG were the only teams to win their away match last week and they will start their home games with confidence.
LAST 16, LEG 2
Orlen Wisla Plock (POL) vs TBV Lemgo Lippe (GER) – first leg 31:28
Tuesday 5 April, 18:45 CEST, live on EHFTV
- in the first leg, Plock turned a 15:13 half-time deficit into a 31:28 away win at Lemgo, their second straight victory on German ground after beating Füchse in the last group match
- Sergei Mark Kosorotov (nine), Przemyslaw Krajewski (seven) were best Plock scorers last week; Lukas Zerbe and Bjarki Mar Elisson bitg scored seven for Lemgo
- Plock left wing Przemyslaw Krajewski: "It will be another hard match for both teams. The atmosphere was great in Germany. This time we will play in front of our own fans who will support us throughout this match"
- Plock were the winners of group A, while Lemgo finished fourth in group B
- Plock beat Szceczin in the Polish league 37:28 and remain second behind Lomza Vive Kielce; Lemgo were defeated at home 32:20 by GWD Minden and are ninth in the German Bundesliga
- the winners of this tie will meet the winners of Sävehof vs Kadetten in the quarter-final
Füchse Berlin (GER) vs HBC Nantes (FRA) – first leg 24:25
Tuesday 5 April, 18:45 CEST, live on EHFTV
- Nantes won the first leg at home by one goal, 25:24, as both goalkeepers starred: Nantes’ Emil Nielsen had 18 saves, Füchse’s Dejan Milosavljev 18
- that win was the first for Nantes against a German side this season, after a loss and a draw against Lemgo in the group phase
- in the group phase, Berlin only lost one home game, against Wisla Plock (30:29)
- Füchse reached the inaugural EHF Finals Men last season, while Nantes played the EHF FINAL4 2021 in Cologne
- last weekend, Nantes won in Créteil (35:31) while Füchse Berlin did not play in the German Bundesliga
SL Benfica (POR) vs Fenix Toulouse HB (FRA) – first leg 34:38
Tuesday 5 April, 18:45 CEST, live on EHFTV
- Toulouse scored the most goals of any team in the Last 16 first leg, while Benfica’s Petar Nenadic was the best scorer with 13 goals
- Benfica won six of their seven home games in the European League this season; their only loss came in the group phase against GOG (33:25)
- Toulouse lost two away matches this season – in Berlin and in Plock, but won the other five
- Benfica eliminated last season’s EHF Finals hosts Rhein-Neckar Löwen in qualification round before the group phase
- last weekend, Toulouse defeated Saran 30:28 in the French Starligue; Benfica had a more straight-forward win against Boa Hora (36:23) in the Portuguese league
IK Sävehof (SWE) vs Kadetten Schaffhausen (SUI) – first leg 26:32
Tuesday 5 April, 18:45 CEST, live on EHFTV
- thanks to 13 saves of goalkeeper Kristian Pilipovic and nine goals of Samuel Zehnder, Kadetten turned a 14:13 half-time deficit into a clear 32:26 victory in the first leg
- it is the fourth duel between the two teams; all previous matches were won by the home team
- Kadetten have not qualified for the quarter-final of an EHF competition since reaching the EHF Cup final in 2009/10, which they lost to Lemgo
- the winners of this tie will meet Lemgo or Plock in the next round
- Sävehof would return to a quarter-final for the first time since winning the Challenge Cup in 2013/14
This will be an extremely tough challenge, but we will play our best. If the opportunity to get a desired result is there, then we will do our best to take it.
