Dominant Red Star advance to #CEVChallengeCupW quarterfinals

On Thursday night in the second leg of the #CEVChallengeCupW 8th Finals, Crvena Zvezda BEOGRAD had a comfortable lead going into their match and the Danish side was looking for a decisive win and an eventual upset in the Golden Set.

The home team opened the first set with the clear intent of finishing the job quickly and going into the next round. From the first point, it was clear that the Red Star players were not lulled into complacency by their lead from the first game, and they dominated the match without giving the visiting team any chance of coming back into it finishing with 25-11 and looking just for another set to ensure going into the quarterfinals. 

Although the Danish side started the second set much better, and were an equal competitor for most of the second part of the game, even coming ahead on a few occasions, at 13-13 Red Star broke away with a 5-0 run and there was no coming back for HOLTE IF. Although they played an equal game for the rest of the set, trading points and seeming coming closer, it ended with a five-point difference ending all hopes for the visiting team.

The Danes were not going down without a fight, starting the third set strongly and looking like they were still not willing to hand over the win, but again, a bit earlier this time, the home team had a great run and created a comfortable lead that was again just too much for the visiting side to recover from. A great game, with plenty of great rallies, with both teams showing that they had earned their place at this stage of the competition.

The most efficient player was Nikolina Lukić from Crvena Zvezda with 15 points, Katarina Stanković followed closely with 14, while Emma Stevnsborg scored the most for HOLTE IF with 12 points. Red Star is through to the next round, going head to head with another one – Panathinaikos ATHENS – of the few remaining clubs that have both their male and female teams still involved in the 2026 European competitions.