Paris (AFP)
The handball players of Paris SG were relatively unscathed by the draw for the group stage of the Champions League carried out on Wednesday, while Nantes finds itself in an extremely strong group with Barcelona, Kiel and Veszprem.
To qualify directly for the quarter-finals of the queen of European hand competition, the six-time defending champions of France must take one of the first two places in a group where the Macedonians of Vardar Skopje, the Germans of Flensburg and the Hungarians from Szeged will be their main rivals.
Teams classified between 3rd and 6th place will have to go through a quarterfinal jump-off.
Small sign of fate, the right winger Luc Abalo, who left PSG in the spring for Elverum, will find the room of Coubertin, since the Norwegian club was placed in the same group as the Parisians.
For its part, Nantes was not spoiled by the draw: the H inherits from Barcelona, the Germans from Kiel and the Hungarians from Veszprem. These are three of the four participants (with PSG) in the Final 4 of the 2019/20 season, postponed to December 28 and 29 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The organizers were forced to cancel the eighth and quarterfinals, and to qualify the first two teams from the high pools for Final 4.
The format of the Men's Champions League has evolved this season: the two low pools have disappeared, increasing the C1 from 28 to 16 clubs. The Final 4, which has been contested so far in late May / early June, is now scheduled for June 12-13, 2021. The first matches are scheduled for September 16 and 17.
Composition of groups
Group A: Vardar Skopje (MKD), Paris SG (FRA), Kielce (POL), Porto (POR), Szeged (HUN), Brest (BLR), Elverum (NOR), Flensburg (GER)
Group B: Barcelona (ESP), Veszprem (HUN), Kiel (GER), Aalborg (DEN), Nantes (FRA), Zaporozhe (UKR), Celje (SLO), Zagreb (CRO)
The first two teams of each group qualify for the quarter-finals, the teams classified from 3rd to 6th place must go through a jump-off before the quarter-finals.
© 2020 AFP