2016–17 CERH European League

2016–17 CERH European League

The Pavelló Barris Nord in Lleida hosted the Final Four.
Tournament details
Dates	5 November 2016 – 14 May 2017
Teams	16 (from 5 associations)
Final positions
Champions	Reus (8th title)
Runners-up	Oliveirense
Tournament statistics
Matches played	59
Goals scored	472 (8 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Federico Ambrosio (15 goals)
← 2015–16 2017–18 →

The 2016–17 CERH European League was the 52nd season of Europe's premier club roller hockey tournament organised by CERH, and the 20th season since it was renamed from European Champion Clubs' Cup to the CERH Champions League/European League.

The winners of the 2016–17 CERH European League earn the right to play against the winners of the 2016–17 CERS Cup in the 2017 CERH Continental Cup.

Benfica were the defending champions.

League positions of the previous season shown in parentheses (TH: Title holders, LQF: Losing quarter-finalists). Bold means seeded teams.

Group stage
Barcelona (1st)	BenficaTH (1st)	Forte dei Marmi (1st)	La Vendéenne (1st)
Vic (2nd)	Porto (2nd)	Amatori Lodi (2nd)	Mérignac (2nd)
Liceo (3rd)	Oliveirense (3rd)	Breganze (LQF)	Dinan Quévert (3rd)
Reus (4th)	Sporting CP (4th)	Bassano (LQF)	Diessbach (1st)

• There was a berth for the winner of the National Roller Hockey League (from England), but the champions King's Lynn declined the invitation. The losing quarter-finalists of the Lega Nazionale Hockey, Bassano, were then awarded with the spot.
• There was also a berth for the winner of the Roller Hockey Bundesliga (from Germany), but the champions Iserlohn also declined the invitation. The 3rd place of the Nationale 1 Elite, Dinan Quévert, were then awarded with the spot.

The schedule of the competition is as follows (draw held in Mieres, Spain, on 10 September 2016).

Barcelona

Vic

Liceo

Reus

Lisbon

Porto

Oliveirense

Forte dei Marmi

Amatori Lodi

Breganze

Bassano

La Vendéenne

Mérignac

Dinan Quévert

Diessbach

Lisbon teams
Benfica
Sporting CP

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Location of teams of the 2016–17 CERH European League group stage.
Red: Group A; Green: Group B; Blue: Group C; Yellow: Group D.

The 16 teams were allocated into four pots, with the title holders, Benfica, being placed in Pot 1 automatically. The other 3 seeded teams, Barcelona, Forte dei Marmi and Liceo, were automatically placed in groups B, C and D, respectively.^[1] They were drawn into four groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.

In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a home-and-away round-robin format.

A total of 5 national associations were represented in the group stage. Sporting CP made its debut appearance in the group stage.

The group winners and runners-up advanced to the quarter-finals.^[2]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		BEN	LOD	VIC	DIE
1	Benfica	6	5	1	0	37	20	+17	16	Advance to knockout phase		—	7–3	3–2	12–2
2	Amatori Lodi	6	3	1	2	30	25	+5	10			6–7	—	6–3	8–3
3	Vic	6	2	2	2	30	18	+12	8			4–4	2–2	—	10–1
4	Diessbach	6	0	0	6	14	48	−34	0			3–4	3–5	2–9	—

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		BAR	POR	BAS	MER
1	Barcelona	6	5	0	1	32	11	+21	15	Advance to knockout phase		—	3–1	14–3	5–1
2	Porto	6	4	1	1	27	13	+14	13			2–1	—	13–3	1–1
3	Bassano	6	2	0	4	24	40	−16	6			2–3	3–4	—	6–4
4	Mérignac	6	0	1	5	12	31	−19	1			2–6	2–6	2–7	—

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		REU	FOR	SPO	QUE
1	Reus	6	5	0	1	25	18	+7	15	Advance to knockout phase		—	7–5	3–2	5–4
2	Forte dei Marmi	6	4	0	2	27	24	+3	12			2–4	—	3–1	2–1
3	Sporting CP	6	3	0	3	23	19	+4	9			6–3	5–7	—	5–1
4	Dinan Quévert	6	0	0	6	16	27	−11	0			2–3	6–8	2–4	—

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		OLI	LIC	BRE	VEN
1	Oliveirense	6	6	0	0	29	20	+9	18	Advance to knockout phase		—	2–1	5–4	4–2
2	Liceo	6	4	0	2	32	20	+12	12			6–7	—	5–2	8–2
3	Breganze	6	0	2	4	23	31	−8	2			3–4	4–7	—	4–4
4	La Vendéenne	6	0	2	4	21	34	−13	2			4–7	3–5	6–6	—

The knockout phase comprises a quarter-final round and the final four tournament. In the quarter-finals, group stage winners play against group stage runners-up, the latter hosting the first of two legs. The winners qualify for the final four, which will take place at the ground of one of the four finalists.^[2]

The first-leg matches were played on 11 March, and the second-leg matches were played on 1 April 2017.^[2]

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Liceo	4–9	Benfica	2–3	2–6
Forte dei Marmi	5–6	Barcelona	1–3	4–3
Porto	9–9 (0–2 p)	Reus	7–7	2–2 (a.e.t.)
Amatori Lodi	6–8	Oliveirense	3–5	3–3

The final four tournament took place on 13 and 14 May 2017.^[2] It was hosted by Barcelona at the Pavelló Barris Nord in Lleida, Spain.^[3]

All times listed below are local time (UTC+02:00).

	Semi-finals				Final
	13 May 2017
	Benfica	4 (1)
					14 May 2017
	Reus (pen.)	4 (2)
					Reus	4
	13 May 2017
					Oliveirense	1
	Barcelona	0
	Oliveirense (a.e.t.)	1

13 May 2017

17:15

Barcelona	0–1 (a.e.t.)	Oliveirense
	Report	Ricardo Barreiros 56'

Pavelló Barris Nord, Lleida

Attendance: Alessandro Eccelsi, Filippo Fronte (Italy)

13 May 2017

19:30

Benfica	4–4 (a.e.t.)	Reus
Diogo Rafael 3' João Rodrigues 11' Carlos Nicolía 36' Jordi Adroher 40'	Report	Albert Casanovas 1', 22' Raül Marín 13' Matías Platero 42'
Penalties
Miguel Rocha Jordi Adroher João Rodrigues Carlos Nicolía Valter Neves	1–2	Raül Marín Àlex Rodríguez Marc Torra Joan Salvat Albert Casanovas

Pavelló Barris Nord, Lleida

Referee: Massimiliano Carmazzi, Franco Ferrari (Italy)

14 May 2017

16:00

Reus	4–1	Oliveirense
Raül Marín 2' Albert Casanovas 33' Marc Torra 40', 41'	Report	Pablo Cancela 25'

Pavelló Barris Nord, Lleida

Referee: Filippo Fronte, Alessandro Eccelsi (Italy)

• 2016–17 CERS Cup
• 2017 CERH Continental Cup
• 2016–17 CERH Women's European Cup

Wikimedia Commons has media related to CERH European League 2016-17.

• Comité Européen de Rink-Hockey (official website)