1 former winner, 8 nations, and 33,625 fans

0 national derbies take place in the play-offs, even with three teams from one country (Germany) involved.

1 of the 32 main round games ended with a draw, after five draws happened in the group matches.

1 quarter-final pairing from last season is a play-off pairing this season: Kadetten Schaffhausen vs Füchse Berlin.

1 team – TSV Hannover-Burgdorf – qualified for the play-offs despite losing all four of their matches in the main round.

1 participant of the EHF Finals 2023 is part of the knockout phase this season: defending champions Füchse Berlin; last year’s runners-up Fraikin BM. Granollers lost in qualification, third-placed Frisch Auf Göppingen are not playing in a European competition, and fourth-placed Montpellier HB are competing in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League.

1 former EHF Champions League winner is part of the knockout phase: SG Flensburg-Handewitt (2014); one more CL finalist is still in the race: HBC Nantes (2018, lost final against Montpellier).

2 teams in the EL knockout phase played in the CL last season: Dinamo Bucuresti and Nantes.

2 teams in play-offs started their EL season in the qualification round: Rhein-Neckar Löwen and TSV Hannover-Burgdorf.

2 main round matches were each attended by more than 5,000 spectators: 5,902 fans were in the arena for both home games of Nantes.

3 teams won all their four main round matches: Nantes, Flensburg, and Sporting CP.

4 matches in the main round ended with a margin of 10 or more goals, after 20 such games in the group matches.

4 German teams are part of the knockout phase.

4 teams that won the main round groups have qualified directly for the quarter-finals: Nantes, Skjern, Flensburg and Sporting.

4 teams that played at the EHF FINAL4 in the past are part of the EL knockout phase: Nantes, Flensburg, Füchse, and Löwen.

5 teams that competed at the EHF Finals (or the EHF Cup Finals, before the 2020/21 season) are part of the knockout phase: Füchse, Löwen, Nantes, Nexe, and Skjern.

6 teams in the knockout phase were part of the Last 16 last season: Flensburg, Füchse, Kadetten, Nexe, Skjern, and Sporting.

6 teams in the knockout phase won a European trophy in the past: Flensburg (EHF Cup 1997; City Cup 1999; CWC 2001, 2012; CL 2014), Füchse (EHF Cup 2015, 2018; EL 2023), Löwen (EHF Cup 2013), Sävehof (Challenge Cup 2014), Skjern (CC 2002, 2003), and Sporting (CC 2010, 2017).

8 nations are represented by the 12 clubs that are still in the competition: Germany (with four teams), Denmark (two), Croatia, France, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, and Switzerland (all one).

9 of the 32 matches in the main round were attended by 3,000 or more spectators.

9 different teams have been part of the three EHF Finals so far in Mannheim (2021), Lisbon (2022), and Flensburg (2023): SC Magdeburg, Orlen Wisla Plock, and Füchse Berlin are the only teams that played at the event two times.

10 goals or more was the winning margin in each of the four matches Flensburg played in group III of the main round.

16 matches have to be played before the four participants in the EHF Finals Men 2024 in Hamburg are confirmed: eight in the play-offs and eight in the quarter-finals.

16 of the 32 main round matches ended with 60 or more goals; in the group matches, 52 games featured 60 or more goals.

18 times in the 32 main round matches, the home team won; 13 times the away team won.

19 goals was the biggest winning margin in a main round game, when Flensburg won 45:26 at Bjerringbro-Silkeborg; 14 goals was the margin at Skjern vs RK Gorenje Velenje (45:31); 12 goals at Flensburg vs Vojvodina (42:30).

45 was the lowest number of goals scored in a main round match, when Vojvodina beat Kadetten 24:21.

52 was the highest number of goals scored by a team in a single match this season, when Dinamo defeated Izvidac 52:24.

+64 was the best goal difference by a team after the main round: Flensburg in group III; Nantes (group I) had +33; Sporting (group IV) +16.

65 goals make Dinamo’s Andrii Akimenko the EL top scorer this season going into the knockout phase; from the players still in competition, Löwen’s Niclas Kirkeløkke is next with 60 goals; Taras Minotskyi (Górnik Zabrze) finished on 63 and Andy Schmid (HC Kriens-Luzern, which didn’t make the main round) on 60.

78 was the highest number of goals scored in a single game since the start of the group matches, when Flensburg beat Kadetten 46:32; 76 was the highest number in the main round, when Skjern beat Velenje 45:31.

164 was the lowest number of goals conceded by a team – Nantes – in the main round; Löwen conceded 166 goals, Flensburg 167.

231 goals have been scored by Flensburg in their six matches counting for the main round, by far the most for any team; Nantes (197 goals) and Skjern (194) were next in line.

10,017 fans in the XXL Arena in Nantes for the game against Löwen in the last round of the group matches is the biggest attendance for an EL game so far this season; in the main round, the highest attendance figure was 5,902 – again in Nantes, for the matches against Hannover and Zabrze.

33,625 fans in total have attended Nantes’ five home matches so far this season.

photos © 2023 Jean Le Boulanger,