EHF European Cup Men to hand out remaining tickets for round 2

Overall, 19 clubs from the opening round will join the 45 participants that were directly seeded to round 2.

• EHF Challenge Cup 2017/18 winners AHC Potaissa Turda host Bosnian side RK Konjuh Zivinice for a double-header in Romania this weekend; Turda had a rough start to the domestic league, recording a draw and a loss, and hope to bounce back on the European stage; the visitors reached the Last 16 of the European Cup last season

• the second double-header of the weekend takes place in North Macedonia as GRK Tikves 2014 welcome Handball Esch from Luxembourg; Esch have not progressed to the next round in the European Cup since reaching the Last 16 in 2021/22, despite participating each year since then; Tikves also hope to break a negative record, having not been able to progress in their three previous attempts

• Alpla HC Hard and RK Dubocica meet on Saturday evening, exactly one week after their thrilling encounter in Serbia last weekend, which ended 34:33 in favour of the hosts; the Austrian club hopes to reduce their number of turnovers, while also relying on their home crowd to mount a comeback; Dubocica showed great mentality in the first leg, turning a three-goal deficit at the break into a win

• another Austrian side with home-court advantage this weekend is HC Fivers WAT Margareten, who take on Giresunspor; the Austrian side celebrated a comfortable victory in the first leg, winning 40:28 in Türkiye

• Greek sides GS Drama 1986 and Ionikos A.C. N.F. want to make it a Hellas quintet in the second round — after A.C. PAOK already secured progression in a double-header last weekend, while Olympiacos S.F.P. and AEK from Athens are already qualified for round 2; Drama have to defend an eight-goal advantage (32:24) over RK Budvanska Rivijera in Montenegro and Ionikos enjoy a seven-goal advantage (29:22) for their home match against KH Besa Famgas

• PAC Omonoia 29M and Netland MKS Kalisz have similar tasks to accomplish, taking a four- and a five-goal advantage, respectively, into their away matches this weekend; Omonoia travel to Lithuania to meet Granitas-Karys, while Kalisz meet Handball Brno in Czechia

• Lithuania also hosts the first match of the weekend, when Vilnius VHC Sviesa need to mount a big comeback against Istanbul GSK; the Turkish side won the first leg at home 44:37, with the duo of Mikita Chyzhyk and Atakan Sirin scoring 20 goals combined

Berchem keep calm in crunch time

HC Berchem enter their reverse fixture at home against MRK Sutjeska with a narrow one-goal advantage (31:30). It was an incredibly even match in which the side from Luxembourg won, despite losing the goalkeeper battle — 11 saves compared to Sutjeska’s 17 — and committing three more misses than Sutjeska.

Berchem produced fewer turnovers over 60 minutes, but especially in crunch time. Down 22:25 with 13 minutes to play, Berchem committed zero turnovers, while the Montenegrin hosts lost possession four times by the end of the game. It will be fascinating to see the outcome of the reverse fixture on Saturday evening in Luxembourg.

Photos © Netland MKS Kalisz (main), Dragana Kožan - Zdravo Pančevo (in-text)