Aalborg and Magdeburg among Champions League rivals

In Vienna, the draw was made on Tuesday for the group stage of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League 2024/25. FC Barcelona are the defending champions but the draw was anything but kind to them, for they will be sharing a group with the team they narrowly beat in last season's final, Aalborg (Denmark) and the 2023 champions SC Magdeburg (Germany).

The other teams in the group are all tough opponents too, namely Industria Kielce (Poland), HBC Nantes (France), OTP Bank-Pick Szeged (Hungary), Kolstad Handball (Norway) and HC Zagreb (Croatia).

The sides in Group A and which Barça have avoided are PSG (France), Orlen Wisla Plock (France), Vészprem (Hungary), Fredericia (Denmark) Füchse Berlín (Germany), Sporting Lisbon (Portugal), Dinamo Bucharest (Romania) and Eurofarm Pelister (North Macedonia).

The top two from each group go directly into the quarter finals and the teams in third and fourth go into a playoff round.

The tournament begins on September 11, and ends with the Final Four at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne in June.