Athlone's European adventure continues after brilliant win against Red Star Belgrade
The story of Athlone Town's involvement in European competition in 2025 will have more chapters to come after Colin Fortune's side produced a superb display to defeat Red Star Belgrade 2-0 in the Netherlands.
The win this afternoon means Athlone have now beaten the champions of Wales, Croatia, and Serbia since their European journey began at the end of July.
On Wednesday, Breidablik of Iceland defeated Athlone 3-1 to end the Irish side's involvement in the Champions League. It meant today's meeting with Red Star Belgrade (officially Crvena Zvezda) was a game Athlone had to win in order to remain in European competition.
A first-half strike from Kelly Brady, followed by a header from the impressive Roisin Molloy on 50 minutes, booked Athlone's place in the first qualifying round of the inaugural Women's Europa Cup, the draw for which will take place tomorrow (Sunday).
It's another landmark moment in what is turning out to be a remarkable season for the Athlone side which is currently sitting top of the league table and also has an FAI Cup semi-final against Shamrock Rovers on the horizon.
This was a hard-fought win against the famous Serbian club, which made the brighter start to game and had two excellent chances to take the lead inside the opening ten minutes.
Athlone goalkeeper Megan Plaschko got her foot to a goal-bound shot from point-blank range after four minutes, diverting it just wide, and Belgrade striker Nikolina Hadžibabić then struck the inside of the post after a flowing passing move on ten minutes.
The Belgrade players were technically accomplished but those two early chances were as close as they would come to scoring throughout.
Athlone took the lead against the run of play on 12 minutes when Madison Gibson intercepted a loose pass from a Belgrade defender and set up Kelly Brady, who swept the ball home from inside the box.
Brady, a US-born striker with strong Irish family connections, nearly doubled Athlone's advantage two minutes later when her deft chip came off the crossbar. This was then followed by a top corner finish from Roisin Molly which was ruled out because Brady was standing in an offside position and was deemed to have interfered with play.
Having gone in a goal to the good at half time, Athlone took firm control of the contest five minutes into the second half. Alexis Strickland played a pass out to Madie Gibson on the left side of the box and her pinpoint cross was deftly headed home by Sligo native Molloy.
The remainder of the game was largely uneventful, in terms of goalmouth action, which was good news for Athlone.
The Irish champions are now in the hat for tomorrow's Europa Cup first qualifying round tie, which is expected to be played over two legs on September 10/11 and September 17/18.