From San Sebastian to Europe

One EHF Champions League debutant, the record winners of the competition and two teams with a long international experience will face in San Sebastian on Friday and Saturday for a spot in the group matches. Tournament host and Spanish champions Super Amara Bera Bera will face four times Champions League winner Hypo Niederösterreich in the semi-final, while German runners-up HC Leipzig are supposed to be the favourites in their semi-final against new Belarusian champions HC Gomel.

The winner of this tournament, which will be decided in Saturday’s final, will join Macedonian champions Vardar, Russian champions Astrakhanochka and Hungarian runners-up FTC Rail Cargo Hungaria in Group B.

All remaining teams will proceed to the EHF Cup. The fourth ranked side will start in qualification round 2, those on the positions two and three enter the competition in qualification round 3.

HC Leipzig (GER) vs HC Gomel (BLR) Friday, 16:00 hrs local time at San Sebastián, live on ehfTV.com

Maybe it is a good omen for HC Leipzig to face Gomel in their semi-final: In the successful 2013/14 and 2014/15 qualifications, the German runners-up proceeded after beating Belarusian champions in their semi-final, in that case, it was Minsk twice.

Leipzig had planned to host the qualification tournament, but due to the parallel football Bundesliga match of RB Leipzig vs Borussia Dortmund it was impossible.

But still the German record champions are confident to at least make it to the final: “We are in a favourite role, but we have strong respect for Gomel,” …

continue reading in source www.eurohandball.com