ETTU Champions League Men 2025/26

[Bollwerk]

Champions League is the premier European club competition with teams from different leagues facing off internationally.

The 2025/26 season just started with Stage 1 held the last 3 days in Novi Sad.

Top 8 seeded teams skipped this stage and are directly qualified for the Round of 16, those are:

1. 🇩🇪 1. FC Saarbrücken TT (defending champions)
2. 🇩🇪 Borussia Düsseldorf
3. 🇵🇱 KS Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki
4. 🇵🇱 KS Dekorglass Dzialdowo
5. 🇦🇹 SolexConsult TTC Wiener Neustadt
6. 🇵🇱 KS Bank Spółdzielczy Orlicz 1924 Suchedniów
7. 🇫🇷 GV Hennebont TT
8. 🇨🇿 HB Ostrov z.s.

Stage 1

Teams 9-24 got drawn into 4 groups, playing single round robin, with the top 2 of each group advancing to Stage 2.

Group results:

Pos	W	L	Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
1st	3	0	🇩🇪 Post SV Mühlhausen	🇫🇷 Alliance Nîmes/Montpellier	🇧🇪 TCC Sokah Hoboken	🇩🇪 ASC Grünwettersbach
2nd	2	1	🇵🇱 Dojlidy Białystok	🇨🇿 SF SKK El Niňo Praha	🇨🇿 SKST Havirov	🇪🇸 Real Club Cajasur Priego TM
3rd	1	2	🇸🇰 STK Vyhne	🇮🇹 ASD TT Santa Tecla Nulvi	🇦🇹 SPG Felbemayr Wels	🇫🇷 AS Pontoise Cergy TT
4th	0	3	🇫🇷 Lille Metropole TT	🇩🇰 Roskilde Bordtennis BTK 61	🇭🇷 STK Starr Croatia	🇨🇿 TTC Ostrava 2016

Every group ended in the same pattern with one team beating all others and one losing all matches. Despite this imbalance there were some upsets and noteworthy results:

9th seed Pontoise Cergy failed to make it out of the groups on the back of a first round loss to Priego. Liam Pitchford was defeated 0-3 in both of his matches against Carlos Machado & Hampus Söderlund.

Liao Cheng-Ting had a rough debut for Mühlhausen, losing to Polish players Patryk Chojnowski & Piotr Chodorski. Ionescu & Stumper still prevented the upset, the latter not without going to a decider, which in the CL is still this silly 6 point shootout (meaning a 6-5 score wins the match in game 5).

Top ranked player of Stage 1 was Alexis Lebrun, with his first matches back after surgery. He led Nîmes/Montpellier to the group win, no issues without Felix present. Followed by Shinozuka who now already completed 6 matches (5W-1L) for Grünwettersbach after his debut in TTBL just this Wednesday.

Stage 2

Starting November 11th teams compete in 2-legged elimination matches played home and away in the Round of 16 and Quarterfinals. 3:0 & 3:1 wins being worth 3 pts, 3:2 wins 2 pts and 2:3 losses 1 point. In case of a tie in points after both legs a golden match (Bo3 sets) decides who advances to the next round.

R16 bracket:

1. Seed 1: 🇩🇪 1. FC Saarbrücken TT
2. 2nd Group A: 🇵🇱 Dojlidy Białystok
3. 1st Group D: 🇩🇪 ASC Grünwettersbach
4. Seed 7-8: 🇫🇷 GV Hennebont TT
5. Seed 5-6: 🇵🇱 KS Bank Spółdzielczy Orlicz 1924 Suchedniów
6. 1st Group C: 🇧🇪 TCC Sokah Hoboken
7. 2nd Group B: 🇨🇿 SF SKK El Niňo Praha
8. Seed 3-4: 🇵🇱 KS Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki
9. Seed 3-4: 🇵🇱 KS Dekorglass Dzialdowo
10. 2nd Group C: 🇨🇿 SKST Havirov
11. 1st Group B: 🇫🇷 Alliance Nîmes/Montpellier
12. Seed 5-6: 🇦🇹 SolexConsult TTC Wiener Neustadt
13. Seed 7-8: 🇨🇿 HB Ostrov z.s.
14. 1st Group A: 🇩🇪 Post SV Mühlhausen
15. 2nd Group D: 🇪🇸 Real Club Cajasur Priego TM
16. Seed 2: 🇩🇪 Borussia Düsseldorf

Bold advanced to QFs

Final Four

The Final Four will be held in Saarbrücken on 16-17 May 2026 with Semifinals and Final to decide the champions.

 

[NextLevel]

The round of 16 matche are taking place the past few days and have been streamed live on YouTube.

Burning question: who is this Y. Tao penholder who has the audacity to beat Anton Kallberg and Li Yongyen?

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

 

[NextLevel]

Fan Zhendong is boosting TT attendance in Europe as always... between possibly letting thr world know that D09c is not worse than Hurricane and playing as a reigning Olympic and National Games Champion in Europe, he might do more for TT than a lot of visionary administrators.

 

[Oliverpool]

The round of 16 matche are taking place the past few days and have been streamed live on YouTube.

Burning question: who is this Y. Tao penholder who has the audacity to beat Anton Kallberg and Li Yongyen?

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

He sure looks like a pretty all rounder Penholder. Strong on both sides with a fantastic parallel RPB as well which is unusual

 

[M51]

Uhm... His surname isn't Zhendong, Fan (樊) is. WTF, ETTU?

 

[Oliverpool]

They obviously am not a FAN 🤪

 

[Bollwerk]

LGY's first match this season starting right now

Mühlhausen vs Düsseldorf QF1:
LGY - Jha
Mengel - Qiu
Freitas - Kallberg
LGY - Qiu
Mengel - Jha

 

[NextLevel]

Massive upset in a match - spoiler!

 

[jfolsen]

Why is Gauzy playing at 80% and exhibition against FZD?

 

[obsidian d]

Why is Gauzy playing at 80% and exhibition against FZD?

Because the mach was won already by Saarbrücken, this is the second leg, the first leg Saarbrücken won 3-0 in Hennebont. Saarbrücken only needed to win one match.

 

[jfolsen]

Because the mach was won already by Saarbrücken, this is the second leg, the first leg Saarbrücken won 3-0 in Hennebont. Saarbrücken only needed to win one match.

Got it, thanks.

 

[TampaBayTableTennis]

Massive upset in a match - spoiler!

wow, i started watching and i was like, well it must have been one of the other matches... lol
---
Gauzy vs Truls very entertaining so far. Truls has a really odd release for his serves from his palm, turning his hand over basically at time of release and back of hand stays in way of ball except for when he tosses high.

wow 1-1 and honestly two of the most entertaining games ive ever watched lol. these two are crazy

that was an epic match with awesome exchanges.

seeing some of Darko's toss and contact point I'm just not going to worry about pro serves at this point

 

[Reaper]

they are playing nonchalantly in some games, can anyone explain?

 

[NextLevel]

they are playing nonchalantly in some games, can anyone explain?

Saarbrucken won the first leg 3-0. So if there was aggregate in place (not sure what the specific aggregate rules were), the match might have been technically over after Truls won the first match and the rest were just for fun and pride. Gauzy and FZD did a slightly better job of masking the uselessness of the match. But Truls and Lev just turned it into a farce. As long as someone was entertained I have no problem with it.

 

[TampaBayTableTennis]

lol, that turned into the most bizarre match ive ever seen. but it did make for some crazy rallies and shots.

rollercoaster ride

 

[JackJohnson]

Because the mach was won already by Saarbrücken, this is the second leg, the first leg Saarbrücken won 3-0 in Hennebont. Saarbrücken only needed to win one match.

I was wondering why Truls wasn’t playing serious for the last game as it was 2-2 at that time. Look more like a warm up/practice before the match starts. I didn’t realise that with CL there is a first leg and a second leg I thought it was straight knock-out.

Do the semi finals and finals have first leg and second leg as well or is it straight knock out where if the team loses they don’t progress to the next round?

 

[obsidian d]

I was wondering why Truls wasn’t playing serious for the last game as it was 2-2 at that time. Look more like a warm up/practice before the match starts. I didn’t realise that with CL there is a first leg and a second leg I thought it was straight knock-out.

Do the semi finals and finals have first leg and second leg as well or is it straight knock out where if the team loses they don’t progress to the next round?

The semi finals are like final 4, so knockouts.

 

[Bollwerk]

I was wondering why Truls wasn’t playing serious for the last game as it was 2-2 at that time. Look more like a warm up/practice before the match starts. I didn’t realise that with CL there is a first leg and a second leg I thought it was straight knock-out.

Do the semi finals and finals have first leg and second leg as well or is it straight knock out where if the team loses they don’t progress to the next round?

I'm a bit late here, but to clarify a bit more, the first CL knockout rounds are 2 legged so each clubs plays one match at home and one away, like in football's CL. The aggregate is not as straight forward as adding the scores though, in that case the 2nd leg could end immediately on match 1. Instead 3:0 and 3:1 are treated equally as full wins, so only once Saarbrücken got the 2nd match win (Jorgic vs Sidorenko) it was decided. In some other quarterfinals the teams stopped playing at that point, but with so many spectators there, some of them travelling far, i guess Saarbrücken wanted to give them more of a show. The semifinals and final are instead hosted as an event with the 4 teams in one place, so you have single matches.

 

[JackJohnson]

I'm a bit late here, but to clarify a bit more, the first CL knockout rounds are 2 legged so each clubs plays one match at home and one away, like in football's CL. The aggregate is not as straight forward as adding the scores though, in that case the 2nd leg could end immediately on match 1. Instead 3:0 and 3:1 are treated equally as full wins, so only once Saarbrücken got the 2nd match win (Jorgic vs Sidorenko) it was decided. In some other quarterfinals the teams stopped playing at that point, but with so many spectators there, some of them travelling far, i guess Saarbrücken wanted to give them more of a show. The semifinals and final are instead hosted as an event with the 4 teams in one place, so you have single matches.

I wonder if the losing team can decline on continuing to play even if they lost after the 1st match win of the second leg. I wonder what the rules are on that.

 

[NextLevel]

I wonder if the losing team can decline on continuing to play even if they lost after the 1st match win of the second leg. I wonder what the rules are on that.

It's really about professionalism. While the trained eye can tell that Gauzy and Fan were playing an exhibition match, it wasn't obvious. Truls though likes to over do it and make it obvious. He had a similar issue when Omar Assar eliminated him at the World Cup in 2024 and started playing lackadaisically and Omar tried to remind him about how important it was to keep a professional image. I am of the view that if professionals cannot figure out how to entertain properly under such circumstances, TT will get a bad reputation. It's not like boxing where a knockout is thrilling.