Athlone Town to face Red Star Belgrade on Saturday in bid to keep European run alive

Hopes of Champions League progression for the Athlone Town women's team ended with defeat to Breidablik of Iceland earlier today (Wednesday), but the club still has one more chance to remain involved in European competition into September.

This Saturday, Athlone will face Red Star Belgrade (officially named Crvena Zvezda), with the winner qualifying for the inaugural Women's Europa Cup, UEFA's new second-tier European competition.

The game will be played at Sportpark Schreurserve in Enschede, Netherlands, which also hosted the Athlone-Breidablik game today. It will kick off at 12 noon (Irish time) on Saturday and will be streamed live, free-to-view, on LOITV.

Athlone's meeting with the famous Serbian club was confirmed after the side from Belgrade lost to Dutch champions FC Twente in Enschede in their Champions League second round qualifier this evening.

FC Twente will now face Athlone's conquerors Breidablik for a place in the third qualifying round of the Champions League while Athlone battle it out with Red Star for a Europa Cup berth.

The Europa Cup will be played as a knock-out tournament with no group stage. Every round, up to and including the final, will be played as a two-legged home-and-away tie.

Athlone face a difficult test on Saturday, in what will be their third match in less than a week.

Red Star Belgrade were competitive for a large part of this evening's game against FC Twente, a team that was in the group stages of the Champions League last year.

The game was scoreless at half-time, and FC Twente led by the minimum up until the 78th minute, before adding five more goals late on to ultimately run out winners on a flattering 6-0 scoreline.

Our live blog on the Athlone-Breidablik game earlier can be read here.

Highlights of the Athlone game can be viewed below: