One female coach, two new nations and two teams from one city

Find all the useful and interesting numbers of the competition prior to the group phase draw for the Men’s EHF Cup on Thursday

16 teams from nine different countries - including former winners of all four EHF European Cup competitions - have made it to the group phase of the Men’s EHF Cup after the final stage of qualification had come to an end last weekend.

On Thursday (11:00 hrs. local time, live on www.ehfTV.com, live ticker on www.eurohandball.com) for the fourth time since 2012 a group phase will be drawn. Prior to the draw, www.eurohandball.com has composed the most important facts and figures of those 16 participants

0 - winners of the “new EHF Cup” (since the 2012/13 season) are in this season’s competition: Rhein Neckar Löwen (winner in 2013) and Pick Szeged (2014) are part of the VELUX EHF Champions League Group Phase, defending champions Füchse Berlin failed in the third qualification round against Chambery

0 - teams have been part of all group phases, since the playing system has changed

1 - former winner of the EHF Champions League is among the 16: SC Magdeburg (winner in 2002). Thus in every season of the merged EHF Cup one former EHF Champions League winner was part of the group phase: again SC Magdeburg (2012/13, CL winner in 2002), Montpellier Agglomeration HB (2013/14, CL winner in 2003) and HSV Hamburg (2014/15, winner in 2013)

1 - participant had won the Challenge Cup before: SKA Minsk (Belarus) in the 2012/13 season

1 - team arrives in the group phase after failing in the VELUX EHF Champions League qualification tournament: OCI Lions from Netherlands. The Dutch champions were drawn against Banja Luka in the crucial qualification stage - the same opponent they had faced in the third place match of the CL qualification tournament. Lions are also the only domestic champions in the Group Phase.

1 - of those 16 teams is coached by a woman: again OCI Lions, by Monique Tijsterman

1 - group phase participant was part of the VELUX EHF Champions League last season: Aalborg Handbold (Denmark)

1 - finalist of the merged EHF Cup has qualified for the group phase: HBC Nantes, loser of the 2013 final against Rhein Neckar Löwen

2 - teams had won the Cup Winners’ Cup, but before the EHF was founded: Minsk (1982/83 and 1987/88) and Granollers (1975/76).

2 - EHF European Cup competitions debutants have made it to the group phase: Helvetia Anaitasuna (Spain) and CSM Bucharest (Romania)

2 - teams of the same city are a premiere in the group phase, as CSM and Dinamo represent the Romanian capital Bucharest

2 - group phase participants have male and female teams in the current EHF European Cup competitions: CSM Bucharest (women in the Champions League) and Team Tvis Holstebro (women in the Cup Winners’ Cup)

2 - nations are represented for the first time in the group phase of the merged EHF Cup: Netherlands (by OCI Lions) and Belarus (by SKA Minsk)

2 - group phase participants bid for hosting the EHF Cup Finals in May 2016: HBC Nantes (France, already host in 2013) and Frisch Auf Göppingen (Germany)

2 - teams have gone all the way from the first qualification round to the group phase: CSM Bucharest and Ystads IF. Four more teams arrived from the second qualification stage: Winterthur, Holstebro, Minsk and Chambery

3 - group phase participants have won the “old version” of the EHF Cup before. Magdeburg took the trophy three times (1998/99, 2000/01, 2006/07), Granollers (1994/95, 1995/96) and Göppingen (2010/11, 2011/12) each two times

3 - teams each come from France (Nantes, Chambery and St. Raphael - after 0 in the 2014/15 group phase) and Denmark (Aalborg, Bjerringbro-Silkeborg and Holstebro)

3 - teams have already the experience of being part of the EHF Cup Finals - and all in the first edition in 2013: Nantes, Holstebro and Göppingen

3 - teams are back again in the group phase after their last season’s appearance: Denmark's Team Tvis Holstebro, Spain's Fraikin BM Granollers and Pfadi Winterthur from Switzerland

3 - nations are represented in the group phase, which had not been part in the 2014/15 season: France, Netherlands and Belarus

4 - countries represent the EHF Cup winners since the original implementation by EHF in the 1993/94 season: Germany (16 titles), Spain (4), Croatia and Hungary (each 1)

6 - nations so far had been represented by clubs in the three previous EHF Cup Finals: Germany (5 teams/2 winners), France (2/0), Denmark (2/0), Hungary (1/1), Romania (1/0), Slovenia (1/0).

7 - participants in the group phase have a previous experience with this stage of the Men's EHF Cup since its merging with the Cup Winners' Cup in 2012/13

7 - nations, which were represented by their clubs in the 2014/15 group phase are out in this season: Croatia, Hungary, Norway, Russia, Portugal, Slovenia and Serbia

9 - different countries are represented by those 16 clubs. France (3 teams), Denmark (3), Germany (2), Spain (2), Romania (2), Belarus, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland

22 - goals was the biggest winning margin in qualification round 3: Minsk scored an aggregate result of 68:46 against Alpla Hard (Austria)

22 - goals were scored by Marcel Hees (Pfadi Winterthur) to be on top of the scorers list prior to the start of the group phase. Funny enough, the same player already topped the ranking after the qualification in the 2014/15 season (that time with 36 goals)

48 - group matches will decide the six or eight teams to proceed to the quarter-finals