Partizan Hosts Fuchse Berlin in Champions League Return
Partizan's handball team returns to the Champions League after 13 years, opening the group stage on September 10 at home against European runner up Fuchse Berlin, at the Aleksandar Nikolic Hall.
On Thursday, September 10, the Aleksandar Nikolic Hall welcomes an opponent Partizan has not faced in the group stage of Europe’s top handball competition in thirteen years. At 6:45 p.m., Fuchse Berlin takes the court, the reigning European runner up and the team around which Partizan’s return to the elite is being measured.
Partizan came back to the Champions League on a special wild card from the European Handball Federation and landed in Group A, alongside Fuchse Berlin, Hungary’s Veszprem and Portugal’s Porto. The new competition format includes 24 clubs split into six groups of four, and each team plays six group stage matches, two against every rival.
The Schedule Is Set, and It Shows No Mercy
Partizan open the season at home against the toughest possible rival in the group. Seven days later, on September 17 at 8:45 p.m., Partizan travel to face Porto. The remaining four group stage matches are played in October, all kicking off at 6:45 p.m.: at home against Veszprem, then away at Veszprem, at home against Porto, and finally away against Fuchse Berlin in Berlin.
In other words, Partizan will play both of their matches against Fuchse Berlin and Porto within a single week at the start of the season, while the double header against Veszprem is spread across two separate weeks in October.
Gidsel and Marsenic’s Return to Belgrade
Fuchse Berlin reached the Champions League final last season, where they lost 37 to 34, and they enter the new campaign determined to finally take that last step. Their playmaker is Mathias Gidsel, the Dane considered one of the best handball players in the world, who broke the record for most goals scored in a single Champions League season last year.
The German club’s roster also includes Mijajlo Marsenic, a Serbian national team player who came up through Partizan’s youth ranks and won domestic trophies with the black and whites. Marsenic has played for Fuchse Berlin since 2018, and the club has already announced it will retire his number 93 jersey once he leaves at the end of this season. Whatever the result, the match at the Aleksandar Nikolic Hall will be a homecoming for him.
Veszprem With Cindric, Porto as the Biggest Chance
Veszprem, Hungary’s most decorated club, is still chasing its first Champions League title, despite reaching the final of Europe’s top competition on multiple occasions. The team is coached by Xavi Pascual, and its roster includes Luka Cindric and Nedim Remili, among others.
On paper, Porto is the opponent against which Partizan has the most realistic chance of picking up points, especially in Belgrade, but the Portuguese club carries plenty of European experience. Last season Porto reached the quarterfinals of the European League, where they lost the first leg to Germany’s Melsungen before winning the return match 23 to 19, though that was not enough to advance.
The Format That Decides How Realistic Partizan’s Chances Are
To understand what every point from Group A really means for Partizan, it helps to understand how the path to the end of the competition works under the new format. The top two teams from each group do not advance directly to the knockout stage, as is sometimes assumed, but instead move into the main round, two blocks of six teams each, where every team plays additional matches against rivals it has not yet faced in the group stage. Only the top four teams from the main round reach the knockout stage, which begins at the quarterfinals. Third and fourth placed teams from the group drop into the European League.
For Partizan, that means the first and realistic goal for the season is reaching the main round, in other words finishing in the top two of Group A, rather than immediately chasing a quarterfinal spot.
Thirteen years is a long time to be away from Europe’s top competition, and returning to that stage alongside a European runner up, a Hungarian giant and an experienced Portuguese club does not come with an easy entry point. The first answer to how ready Partizan really is arrives already on Thursday, September 10, at the Aleksandar Nikolic Hall.
