Defending champions and debutants to fight for Youth Club Trophy
Danish side GOG and Füchse Berlin will duel for the trophy in the second edition EHF Youth Club Trophy (YCT) Men on the fringe of the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 2026, with the final to be played on Sunday (11:30 CEST; live on EHFTV) in LANXESS arena, Cologne. The final will be a rematch of the 2025 qualification final in Potsdam, Germany, won by GOG.
It is the dream of every handball player to once play in his life in the huge LANXESS arena, now we made it. We were well prepared, and we did everything according to our plan. Therefore, it was a great match from our side. Now we have to recover quickly, knowing that another top team is ahead.
My young players were too respectful in the beginning; we missed more than 20 shots in 60 minutes, this is why the margin is so high. Berlin’s goalkeeper was great, this was the major difference, but Füchse have, in general, a great time. Unfortunately, four of our players, who won the qualification tournament, are out with injuries. Overall, it is a great success for us to make it to this final tournament. Now we hope for a great match against Barça.
GOG are a really strong team, and they absolutely deserved to win. Unfortunately, two of our key players are injured. But for us, the most important thing is to play a competition like this, to qualify for the final tournament and to learn from it for the future. I am happy that my players fought until the end and never gave up, even when the match was decided.
It is simply fantastic to play the final in LANXESS arena tomorrow. It was the dream and the goal of the whole season to make it there. We played well in defence, and we managed to score many easy counterattack goals. This was the key. There was no moment when I thought we could lose this match.
