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The numbers game
- Updated: September 6, 2016
After Tatran Presov (Slovakia) and ABC/UMinho (Portugal) took the last spots as the winners of the qualification tournaments on Sunday, the group phase of the 2016/17 VELUX EHF Champions League season is ready to begin. To celebrate the return of the competition, here are the most important facts and figures of the upcoming group phase and beyond:
0 times since the inauguration of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 in 2010, have the champions defended their title. The last team to do so was BM Ciudad Real in 2009.
1 draw only will be held between now and the end of the season – for the VELUX EHF FINAL4 semi-finals in Cologne. All pairings of the Last 16 and quarter-finals are set by the rankings of the group phase.
1 person won the EHF Champions League as a player and a coach: Talant Dujshebaev. The current coach of Vive Tauron Kielce won the competition in 1994 as a player of Santander (ESP) and 2006, 2008 and 2009 as a coach of Ciudad Real, before steering Kielce to their first trophy in 2016.
2 winners of Groups A and B progress directly to the quarter-finals.
2 coaches led two different teams to the EHF Champions League trophies: Icelandic born Alfred Gislason (2002 SC Magdeburg, 2010 and 2012 THW Kiel) and Talant Dujshebaev (2006, 2008, 2009 Ciudad Real, 2016 Vive Tauron Kielce).
2 teams are debutants of the VELUX EHF Champions League Group Phase: Holstebro (DEN) and Nantes (FRA).
4 participants of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 2016 have qualified for the group phase again: Kielce, Veszprem, PSG and Kiel.
4 playoff matches featuring the two best ranked teams of Groups C and D in March will decide the remaining Last 16 spots
4 times each, Thierry Omeyer (Montpellier 2003, Kiel 2007, 2010, 2012) and Uros Zorman (Celje 2004, Ciudad Real 2008 and 2009, Kielce 2016) have won the EHF Champions League and are the most successful active players. Still, Andrej Xepkin is the individual record winner with seven trophies (six with Barcelona, one with Kiel).
5 countries are represented by the previous 22 EHF Champions League champions: Spain (14 titles), Germany (6), Poland, Slovenia and France (one each).
5 times only Spanish and/or German teams had qualified for the final of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 (2010 Kiel vs Barcelona, 2011 Barcelona vs Madrid, 2012 Kiel vs Madrid, 2013 …
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