Fenerbahçe Medicana Istanbul headlines well-balanced Pool D in the #CLVolleyW

The battle for the berths for the next phase of the CEV Champions League Women will be a heated one in Pool D, a pool which has an overwhelming favourite,Fenerbahçe Medicana Istanbul, a side which has been a perennial contender over the past seasons, trying to repeat their performance from the 2011/12 season, when they clinched the title.

The Turkish side, which enters the European premium competition as the domestic champions, after sealing the title last season against rivals Eczacibasi Dynavit Istanbul, were close to securing the trophy in the last three seasons, yet were eliminated each time in the semi-finals, twice by rivals VakifBank Istanbul and once by Numia Vero Volley Milano, in the previous season.

This time around, Fenerbahçe Medicana Istanbul will aim once again high, as they are the team with the third largest number of wins in the CEV Champions League Women, just behind VakifBank and Eczacibasi Dynavit Istanbul. Provided they secure three wins this season, they will become only the third team in history to secure wins in triple digits in the competition proper.

Fenerbahçe have a stellar line-up at their disposal, with two of the best players in the competition, Melissa Vargas and Magdalena Stysiak, ready to fire up the scoreboards in the matches, and they will be the favourite in this group, despite losing their top scorer last season, Arina Fedorovtseva, who had a league-leading 34 aces in the CEV Champions League Women.

The Turkish champions have conceded only two losses in their last 16 matches in the 4th round in the European premium competition, one of them coming against LKS Łódź, in the 2022/23 season.

Once again, the main challenger for Fenerbahçe looks to be PGE Grot Budowlani Łódź, which finished on the fourth place in the Polish league last season. The Polish side ŁÓDŹ will participate in the CEV Champions League 4th round  for the sixth time, but have yet to make it to the play-offs, finishing outside the top places each time.

In the previous season, PGE Grot Budowlani Łódź finished on the third place in a group with Fenerbahçe, SC Potsdam and Calcit Kamnik, conceding both matches against their Turkish rivals in straight sets, heaading directly to the CEV Cup Women, as they were the third best third-placed team in the standings.

Nevertheless, PGE Grot Budowlani Łódź will not have an easy path towards the play-offs, as French outfit Neptunes Nantes are back in the competition after a four-year hiatus, making it to the 4th round after finishing second in the French league, where they lost the final against Levallois Paris Saint Cloud, despite winning the regular season.

Just as PGE Grot Budowlani Łódź and Vasas Óbuda Budapest, Nantes have never made it to the next phase of the competition, which means that at least one team in this pool will secure a play-offs spot for the first time in history.

Hungarian champions Vasas Óbuda Budapest have made it to the 4th round of the European premium competition for the fourth time in history, and for the third time in a row, but they have only one win in 18 previous matches.

That came against Bulgarian side Maritza Plovdiv last season, and they will hope to get more, as Vasas can become the first Hungarian side to progress to the next phase.