Braga are back on a new but familiar stage

Only two goals were missing on 30 April 1994 from making handball history.

After a 22:22 draw on home court in the final of the first ever EHF Champions League season, ABC Braga travelled to Santander, but lost 21:23 in the return leg against the Spaniards, who became the first ever Champions League winner.

Still, this is the biggest success in ABC’s club history. 22 years later, the twelve-time Portuguese champions took their first international trophy in May 2016 by beating Benfica in the EHF Challenge Cup Final.

And now – after becoming Portuguese champions for the first time again since 2007 – they have crowned 2016 by qualifying for the group phase of the VELUX EHF Champions League.

In Bregenz, they beat the Austrian hosts in the final of the qualification tournament giving them their first appearance in the group phase since 2001.

One of the keys to success is Carlos Resende, the most popular and successful handball player of all time, scoring 1,444 goals in 250 international matches. Resende arrived back at Braga – where he had played in the ‘golden era’ – in 2011 as the new coach.

Now, he steers an all-Portuguese squad to the club’s 20th international …

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