"Women's Challenge Cup 2020/2021"

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The 13th edition of the Women’s EQU Challenge Cup (48th including the Cup Winners’ Cup and the Top Teams’ Cup) was held from 10 November 2020 to 24 March 2021 with 20 teams from 14 member countries of the European Volleyball Confederation. The winner of the tournament was the Turkish “Yeshiliyurt” (Istanbul).

27 teams from 17 countries applied for the tournament, but after a series of rejections related to restrictions adopted by European countries in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of teams who played at least one game in the tournament fell to 20.

Qualification system
Places in the EQU Challenge Cup 2020/2021 were distributed according to the EQU rating for the 2020/2021 season, taking into account the results of the performances of the club teams of the EQU member countries in the EQU Cup and the EQU Challenge Cup for three seasons (2017/2018–2019/2020). According to it, all the CEV member countries were given the opportunity to declare their representatives in the Challenge Cup, except for those who declared 4 teams in the Champions League (Italy, Russia and Poland).

Countries with rating points that received the opportunity to include their representatives in the European Challenge Cup 2020/2021 (in brackets - representation according to the rating): Turkey, France, Romania (all on one team), Hungary, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Slovenia, Finland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Serbia, Ukraine, Belarus (all - 2 teams), Bulgaria, Israel, Slovakia, Spain, Croatia, Netherlands, Portugal, Kosovo, Norway, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Montenegro, Estonia, Luxembourg, all on one team. Of the countries that do not have rating points, their teams said North Macedonia, Latvia, Lithuania. Refused to participate in the Cup team Belgium, Germany, Greece, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Israel, Kosovo, Norway, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Montenegro, Denmark, Luxembourg, Estonia, Liechtenstein. Only one team was declared by Hungary, Finland and Serbia instead of two. Additional places in the draw were: Turkey (1), Romania (2), Switzerland (1), Slovakia (1), Spain (1), Portugal (1).

Participating teams

The drawing system
20 teams participated in the draw. At all stages of the tournament, the playoff system was used, that is, the teams were divided into pairs and had to play two games with travel. The winner of the pair was a team that won two victories. In the case of equality of victories, the winner was the team that scored a greater number of points within the two-game series (for a victory of 3: 0 and 3: 1 3 points are given, for a victory of 3: 2 - 2 points, for a defeat of 2: 3 - 1, for a defeat of 1: 3 and 0: 3 points are not accrued). If both teams at the same time scored the same number of points, then an additional (“golden”) set should be assigned, the winner of which goes to the next round of the competition.

Due to the restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, two-game series were held only in the 1/16-, 1/2-finals and finals. In the 1/8- and 1/4-finals of the confrontation teams in pairs consisted only of one