Fear the Bear of Chekhov. Fear it.

Blimey …  you wait for months for some Champions League handball and then three matches come along at once.  If this was US primary season they’d be calling it Super Thursday.  As it is, we’ll just direct you to the three games you can see today via the good people at EHF TV (free, uninterrupted but no commentary).

(A recap: this is match round 8 of the group stage.  As there are six teams per group there are ten matches and four qualifiers.  Quite a lot of the qualification, if not placings, has already been decided).

We start at 2.45pm with Chekhovskie Medvedi at home to HSV Hamburg.  The two teams top their group and drew 27:27 in Hamburg back in October.  The “Chekhov Bears” (and indeed HSV) have lost to German opposition in the Champions League this year – away t0 Flensburg-Handewitt.  Providing the two teams play to their best and field first teams this should be a close one.

That’s followed at 6.30pm by another match from Group A.  Partizan Beograd (Belgrade) recorded a home win over Spanish opposition in October but haven’t collected a single point away from home so far.  Today they are at Flensburg-Handewitt whose two drawn matches prevent them occupying top spot.  This one should not be close.

Finally, at 7pm, a match that could mean a lot for qualification.  Pick Szeged have four points, Kadetten Schaffhausen have 2.  In their previous encounter in Hungary, Szeged won by the odd point in 59.  Schaffhausen’s sole win was at home and if they repeat that today they will be back in the mix for the fourth and final qualifying spot in this group.