< /p> Hockey. Illustrative photo.
Tampere (Finland) – Hockey players from the championship team Třinec, Pardubice and Vítkovice will face Ilves Tampere in the upcoming season of the Champions League. While Dynamo will welcome the second team of the regular season of the Finnish league at home, the Steelers and Ostrava will present themselves in the north of Europe. According to the new game system of the competition, all teams will play six matches in the regular season – three at home and three away.
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24 teams will play in the Champions League, eight less than last season. They will no longer be divided into groups, but the results will be included in the overall table and 16 teams will then advance to the playoffs.
The scheme that divided the home and away matches was determined by today's draw at the World Cup venue in Tampere. The teams were first divided into four baskets, within which they could not play against each other. At the same time, even teams from the same countries or competitions cannot compete in the first part of the Champions League.
Třinec will welcome EHC Red Bull Munich, Rapperswil-Jona Lakers and Aalborg Pirates at home, and will play away against Ilves Tampere, Pelicans Lahti and Stavanger Oilers. Pardubice will play at home against Ilves, ERC Ingolstadt and Stavanger, away they will play against Servette Geneva, Skelleftea AIK and Belfast Giants. Vítkovice will face Munich, EHC Biel-Bienne and Rapperswil-Jona at home, and they will face Ilves, Ingolstadt and Lahti away.
In addition to Ilves, extra-league representatives are also waiting for a repeat match against Rapperswil-Jona, for whom the captain of the Czech national team plays Roman Červenka, Munich, Ingolstadt, Stavanger or Lahti, which the pair of Czech compatriots Patrik Bartošák and Lukáš Jašek left after the season. , who will go on away trips with us, will also see very interesting matches. We will compete with teams with a different style of hockey and it will be a new experience for the entire organization,” said Pardubice sports director Dušan Salfický on the club's website. The first goal of Dynamo, which starts in the Champions League as the winner of the regular season, is to advance to the playoffs.
The Champions League will start on August 31, the exact schedule of the competition will be published in the next few days. The play off starts on November 14, the final match is scheduled for February 20. The victory is defended by Tappara Tampere.
