CSKA suffered a comeback and failed to win the first leg of the Challenge Cup 1/8 finals. The "Reds" squandered their advantage after leading 2-1 in sets and lost 2-3 (28-26, 27-29, 25-18, 21-25, 10-15) to Belgian Menen. Sasho Popov's boys showed great fluctuations in their game, making many unforced errors. The reception was also not working, which further complicated the game for the "Army men", who were supported by a large crowd in "Hristo Botev" hall. In addition to the negatives for the hosts was the lack of decisiveness from the outside hitters.

New signing Denislav Bardarov performed very well in his first match in the red jersey, recording 24 points (4 aces and 4 blocks), the same as Strahinja Barzakovitch, but this proved insufficient for the victory. Velikov (13 points), Chavdarov, and Mitev (10 points each) finished with double-digit scores.

The most effective player for the winners was former beach volleyball player Gilles Vandecaveye with 20 points.

The fourth set proved decisive, in which CSKA started well, leading until the middle of the set, and managed to catch up after that for 21:21. Again, reception and individual errors weighed heavily at the end of the set, as the hosts could not make more than 21 points, losing 21:24.
The setback mentally affected the "Reds", who started the tie-break stiffly, allowing the guests to take the lead at the very beginning. Several times our attackers failed to overcome the opponent's block, and at a score of 1:4 in the "Army men's" deficit, there were already 29 unforced errors against 22 for the guests. Sasho Popov's boys' serve also wasn't working, nor did the forced interruption of the game after an injury to a Belgian player help, nor did the frequent substitutions. With another service error, the first match point for the Belgians came. Again, with a mistaken serve by our team, the match ended.
The return leg is on December 17th at 9 PM Bulgarian time.

Photos: Nikolay Varadinov