SUMMARY: Nantes with a thriller win, MOTW MVP title for Briet

• Nantes celebrated a 29:28 win in the MOTW with Thibaud Briet securing the MOTW MVP title with five goals and three assists
• also on Wednesday: Fredericia suffered a nine-goal loss against Veszprem (31:40), Kielce secured a narrow home win over Kolstad (31:30), and Eurofarm won at home against Wisla (21:18)
• coming up on Thursday: Dinamo hosting PSG, Szeged playing Aalborg in Hungary, Barca welcomes Zagreb and Fuchse aiming for the home win over Sporting
• find all the highlights on the Home of Handball YouTube
• Bruno Pinevic reporting; photo courtesy of HBC Nantes

23:00

With this win, Nantes have managed to move up in the standings jumping over Szeged and are now second with a point over the Hungarians although Szeged have a match to play tomorrow. Magdeburg will, on the other side, wait for 2025 on the sixth position with seven points. 

That brings the live coverage to an end. Thanks for being with us today! We've got four more games coming up tomorrow to close 2024. Good night!

22:55

And here are the photos from Nantes!

22:45

Here is what centre backs of the both teams had to say right after the game!

22:30

MOTW MVP Thibaud Briet finished the match with five goals, same as Aymeric Minne, Ayoub Abdi and Nicolas Tournat. Six combined saves for Ignacio Biosca and Ivan Pesic. 

Manuel Zehnder and Daniel Pettersson on the other side netted six each for Magdeburg while Sergey Hernandez and Nikola Portner combined for nine saves. 

20:40

Minutes to go until the opening whistle with the teams taking the court in the heated Neodif XXL Arena in Nantes. It looks like we're up to a great MOTW to close the first part of the season!

20:32

Magdeburg's goalkeeper Nikola Portner, who spent six seasons in France playing for Montpellier and Chambery, is excited to be back. 

"I had some amazing seasons in France and it's always nice to come back. I know a lot of French players, players who are currently in Nantes included, and I'm looking forward to the game", concluded Portner. 

20:25

With 20 minutes left until the opening buzzer, fans are slowly finding their way in for the MOTW. Here are the first photos from Nantes. 

20:20

In what has become a tradition for the French side, they will play their last home game before Christmas in the Neodif Hall XXL which can host more than 11,000 fans. 

''We are really happy for the opportunity to play in Neodif XXL Arena again! We already achieved some great things in 2024, and the goal will be to enjoy this game against a brilliant team which has proved that winning the Champions League and Bundesliga. I'm sure they'll be motivated on Wednesday evening!", concluded Nantes head coach Gregory Cojean prior to the game. 

20:10

This week's MOTW is bringing us a duel between third-positioned team in group B Nantes, and fifth Magdeburg. Both teams were victorious a week ago - Nantes in Zagreb (22:25), and Magdeburg at home against Barca (28:23). They will surely look to build up more momentum and secure the best possible position in the standings ahead of the winter break. 

Two teams met mid-October with Nantes taking a road win in Germany (28:32) on the wings of an amazing performance by Aymeric Minne who went off scoring 10 goals from just as much attempts. Minne proved to be in great form a week ago in Zagreb torturing hosts in transition and it will be interesting to see whether coach Bennet Wiegert and his guys managed to find a way to slow down  the amazing Frenchman.

20:00

Good evening everyone, and welcome back to Machineseeker EHF Champions League 2024/25! Round 10 - the last before the winter break, is bringing us a lot more thrilling action with our main focus being on the Wednesday's MOTW in which Nantes will welcome Magdeburg!

To help set up the tone, check out our round preview which, as always, contains everything you need to know about all the games waiting for us on Wednesday and Thursday, as well the piece with one of Magdeburg' key players on both sides of the court - Danish national team player Magnus Saugstrup!