20:34
Into the final minutes before the opening whistle now! The teams have finished their warm-up and left the court ready to return for game time.
Tune in now on EHFTV.
20:21
Diving into some key facts about the MOTW: Barça enter the game on the maximum six points after three wins in the season. Prior to round 4, they sat alone on top of the group B table. Following Szeged's win on Wednesday, the Hungarian side joined Barça on six points, but the Spanish team have the chance to take a fourth victory tonight and keep their group leader status.
Aalborg count three points in their tally, which puts them fourth on the table ahead of the MOTW. They opened the season with a great win over HBC Nantes, 38:31, before losing to Zagreb, 23:31, and drawing against Magdeburg, 33:33.
Barça have beaten Kolstad, Szeged and Kielce so far, with the victory over Szeged the narrowest at 31:30.
This will be the 13th time the sides have faced each other, and Barça have won all previous 12 confrontations — including the final in both 2024 and 2021.
20:10
Since 9 June this year, Barça coach Carlos Ortega has sat alone at the top of the ranking of most trophies won in the EHF Champions League Men. Ortega won six trophies as a player and has now taken two as coach, with the first coming in 2022 in his first season in charge of the club. All eight were with Barça.
In our MOTW feature this week, Ortega looks at the season so far, where Barça are now following a fourth-place finish at the IHF Club World Championship last week and what he expects of the clash against Aalborg.
