The top two teams in each group then met in a ‘semi-final’ play-off, with the two winners going through to the first knock-out phase.

The culmination of the season, the VELUX EHF FINAL4, will continue in its existing format, with the four top teams from the competition competing for the title.

Since Germany qualified three teams, the lowest seeded side (Kiel) were drawn with one of the other two.

[8] In each group, teams played against each other in a double round-robin format, with home and away matches.

During the group stage, only criteria 4–5 apply to determine the provisional ranking of teams.

The top two teams from Groups C and D contested a playoff to determine the two sides advancing to the knockout phase.