Episode 286 - Champions League round up, discover the Emerging Nations and EURO games to watch this week

Knockout handball is here! The road to Budapest and the Women's EHF FINAL4 begins with the play-off round this weekend and we chat to Adrian Costeiu with two tight contests and a Romanian derby to look forward to.

The group phase of the Men's Champions League has come to an end, so we rate the competition to date. Handball hipsters gather round for the IHF Emerging Nations, where handball worlds truly collide, plus we give you the five EHF EURO qualifiers you should watch this week.

Just under a year ago, Great Britain's women were thrown into the spotlight with a surprise wildcard into the Olympic Qualification Tournaments. Since then, the team has pressed on behind the scenes and begin their EHF EURO 2026 Qualification campaign this weekend against Bosnia Herzegovina and Estonia. Home-grown talent Heidi Warren and coach Mark Hawkins, 2012 Olympian and one of our very first guests, join us to look back at their journey so far and ahead to the weekend. This morning club episode was originally published on Thursday on patreon.com/handballhour. Join us to enjoy these shows weekly.  

Mathias Gidsel has committed his future to Fuchse Berlin and gets a nice pay rise for his loyalty. Is a residency at Berghain part of the deal for DJ Gidsel and will his star sidekick join him? Sander Sagosen has decided to leave the Kolstad project and return to the scene of his big breakthrough. Can he rediscover his form at Aalborg and where do Kolstad go from here?

  In our final review, we look back at Denmark's dominant final win over Croatia and where that puts them among the sport's top teams of all time. We also hear from Denmark's Lukas Jørgensen and Croatia's Mario Šoštarić on the fiery gold medal clash. Our traditional Alternative Awards are out at the end of the week on Patreon, where the real MVPs are celebrated through the likes of the Swiss Army Knife and Adrian Sipos awards.

Men's World Championship 2025 - 30 January: Tears, drama and buzzer-beaters galore in the Quarter-finals with Danijela Vekic, Thibaut Briet and Marcio Menino

We're into the knockout phase of the World Championship with four tantalising quarter-finals coming our way on Tuesday and Wednesday. Björn Pazen joins us from Croatia to run through the contests and break down the key battles.

Brazil have reached the quarter-finals of the Men's World Championship for the first time and they've done it the hard way, battling through a group with Spain, Sweden and Norway. Brazilian commentator Sergio Arenillas joins us to speak about the surprise breakthrough and what makes this team so special. We also look at Portugal's latest stellar performance, Egypt's nailbiter and Croatia's resurrection to beat Iceland.

We're off to the main round at the World Championship and as things are beginning to heat up, we look at the big stories from recent days, including mixed fortunes for the host nations and which teams are truly emerging as medal contenders. And we speak to Dutch star Kay Smits about his return to the national team after a layoff due to a heart inflammation, his side's progress in recent years and what they need to do to achieve their next major breakthrough.

The 2025 IHF Men's World Championship begins today, so we bring you our second big preview ahead of tonight's opening matches. 5:00 - Albin Falk Hansson previews the Nordic sides' chances 42:10 - Quickfire previews on the chasing pack 52:00 - Erwin Feuchtmann on his World Championship adventures with Chile 1:14:20 - Our final predictions Join us on patreon.com/handballhour to enjoy bonus content throughout the month as we cover the tournament in Norway, Croatia and Denmark.