2022–23 Women's EHF Champions League

Women's EHF Champions League
2022–23
Tournament information
Sport	Handball
Dates	10 September 2022–4 June 2023
Teams	16
Website	ehfcl.com
Final positions
Champions	Vipers Kristiansand
Runner-up	FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria
Tournament statistics
Matches played	131
Goals scored	7515 (57.37 per match)
Attendance	352,257 (2,689 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Henny Reistad; (142 goals)
	← 2021–22 2023–24 →

The 2022–23 Women's EHF Champions League was the 30th edition of Europe's premier club handball tournament, running from 10 September 2022 to 4 June 2023.

Vipers Kristiansand won their third title in a row by defeating FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria in the final.^[1]

Format

The tournament was using the same format as the previous two seasons. The competition began with a group stage featuring sixteen teams divided into two groups. Matches were played in a double round-robin system with home-and-away fixtures, fourteen in total for each team. In Groups A and B, the top two teams automatically qualified for the quarter-finals, with teams ranked 3rd to 6th entering the playoff round.

The knockout stage included four rounds: the playoffs, quarter-finals, and a final-four tournament comprising two semifinals and the final. In the playoffs, eight teams were paired against each other in two-legged home-and-away matches (third-placed in group A plays sixth-placed group B; fourth-placed group A plays fifth-placed group B, etc.). The four aggregate winners of the playoffs advanced to the quarterfinals, joining the top-two teams of Groups A and B. The eight quarterfinalist teams were paired against each other in two-legged home-and-away matches, with the four aggregate winners qualifying to the final-four tournament.

In the final four tournament, the semifinals and the final were played as single matches at a pre-selected host venue. For this tournament, it was the MVM Dome.

Team allocation

Bucharest

Bucharest teams

CSM

Rapid

class=notpageimage|

Location of teams of the 2022–23 Women's EHF Champions League group stage.

Red: Group A;

Blue: Group B.

17 teams applied for a place, with nine having a fixed place.^[2]^[3] The final list was released on 27 June 2022.^[4]

Storhamar HE and CS Rapid București will make their debut appearances in the Champions League group stage, while RK Lokomotiva, DHK Baník Most and SG BBM Bietigheim make their return.

Wildcard rejection
Borussia Dortmund

Group stage

The draw took place on 1 July 2022.^[4]^[5]

Group A

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification	VKR	BUC	ODE	FTC	KRI	BBR	BIE	MOS
1	Vipers Kristiansand	14	11	1	2	456	373	+83	23	Quarterfinals	—	35–29	34–27	27–26	36–31	31–24	34–32	39–24
2	CSM București	14	10	2	2	439	386	+53	22	Quarterfinals	27–24	—	40–31	30–24	30–28	30–30	28–28	40–25
3	Odense Håndbold	14	8	0	6	398	373	+25	16	Playoffs	24–34	27–31	—	25–28	26–22	25–24	31–24	41–22
4	FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria	14	7	1	6	407	374	+33	15		26–26	29–33	27–23	—	37–26	20–21	28–23	43–19
5	RK Krim Mercator	14	6	0	8	399	405	−6	12^[a]		21–27	28–26	23–29	30–32	—	24–22	35–28	42–31
6	Brest Bretagne Handball	14	5	2	7	377	378	−1	12^[a]		29–36	26–33	21–25	24–21	22–24	—	32–28	31–26
7	SG BBM Bietigheim	14	5	2	7	432	388	+44	12^[a]		32–30	25–27	24–27	40–20	30–23	25–25	—	47–25
8	DHK Baník Most	14	0	0	14	347	578	−231	0		21–43	26–35	19–37	27–46	29–42	30–46	23–46	—

Source: EHF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
Notes:

^ ^a ^b ^c Krim 6 Pts, +4 GD; Brest 3 Pts, 0 GD; Bietigheim 3 Pts, −4 GD

Group B

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification	MET	GYO	ESB	BUC	BUD	SHE	KAS	LOK
1	Metz Handball	14	12	1	1	429	352	+77	25	Quarterfinals	—	29–28	26–24	36–34	29–23	31–22	35–24	38–13
2	Győri Audi ETO KC	14	11	0	3	444	347	+97	22	Quarterfinals	24–28	—	29–28	32–30	32–19	39–26	44–25	32–16
3	Team Esbjerg	14	10	0	4	455	367	+88	20^[a]	Playoffs	35–28	29–31	—	35–30	30–20	35–25	39–31	33–20
4	CS Rapid București	14	9	2	3	441	404	+37	20^[a]		32–32	30–27	34–32	—	39–29	27–25	28–22	27–22
5	WHC Budućnost BEMAX	14	6	1	7	346	366	−20	13		28–36	22–25	23–28	30–30	—	24–23	10–0	25–18
6	Storhamar Håndball Elite	14	4	0	10	377	406	−29	8		24–26	21–35	25–34	29–36	25–27	—	31–29	37–13
7	Kastamonu Bld. GSK	14	1	1	12	341	452	−111	3		23–28	27–39	27–43	26–33	27–40	28–33	—	26–23
8	RK Lokomotiva Zagreb	14	0	1	13	276	415	−139	1		18–27	16–27	18–30	27–31	24–25	22–31	26–26	—

Source: EHF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
Notes:

^ ^a ^b Esbjerg 67–64 Rapid București

Knockout stage

Playoffs

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Storhamar Håndball Elite	52–60	Odense Håndbold	22–30	30–30
Brest Bretagne Handball	49–55	Team Esbjerg	25–28	24–27
WHC Budućnost BEMAX	46–55	FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria	24–28	22–27
RK Krim Mercator	53–54	CS Rapid București	29–24	24–30

Quarterfinals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
CS Rapid București	56–71	Vipers Kristiansand	25–31	31–40
FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria	59–58	Metz Handball	26–32	33–26
Team Esbjerg	65–59	CSM București	32–28	33–31
Odense Håndbold	55–66	Győri Audi ETO KC	27–29	28–37

Final four

The final four will be held at the MVM Dome in Budapest, Hungary on 3 and 4 June 2023.

Bracket

Semi-finals		Final

3 June

Győri Audi ETO KC	35
		4 June
Vipers Kristiansand	37
		Vipers Kristiansand	28
3 June
		FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria	24
FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria	30

Team Esbjerg	29
		Third place

		4 June

		Győri Audi ETO KC	28

		Team Esbjerg	27

Final

4 June 2023 18:00	Vipers Kristiansand	28–24	FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria	MVM Dome, Budapest Attendance: 20,022 Referees: Praštalo, Balvan (BIH)
	Næs Andersen, Vyakhireva 6	(14–13)	Bölk, Lekić 5
	1× 4×	Report	1× 2× 1×

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals^[6]
1	Henny Reistad	Team Esbjerg	142
2	Markéta Jeřábková	Vipers Kristiansand	118
2	Cristina Neagu	CSM București	118
4	Katrin Klujber	FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria	114
5	Ana Gros	Győri Audi ETO KC	99
6	Emily Bölk	FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria	92
	Angela Malestein	FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria
	Jovanka Radičević	RK Krim Mercator
9	Anniken Obaidli	Storhamar Håndball Elite	91
10	Milena Raičević	WHC Buducnost BEMAX	88