When Luxembourg faces Romania on Thursday afternoon (18:00), our national team will play its last game of the FIBA 2025 Eurobasket pre-qualifiers. The chances of qualifying for the next round are still alive, coach Ken Diederich and his team want to play another strong game in group B.
The preparation for this game was special because it is off-season for all players on our roster: „The season is finished for a long time for most players, some took a vacation or a break and so we had to adapt. All in all, we had a good preparation », says coach Diederich who has nominated 12 players for this game, including some new faces. „Obviously we have 3 key players who are missing with Mihailo Andjelkovic, Oliver Vujakovic and Malcolm Kreps. Everybody was focused and gave his best which is what I am looking for as a coach. »
On the road, in Romania, Luxembourg is facing the favorite and only unbeaten team in group B: „It will be a difficult environment for us. First of all, it is extremely hot in Romania at the moment, around 40 degrees and we play on the road against their fans so we are facing a tough situation. I red in a newspaper that their team was criticized for only beating us by 3 points in our first meeting so that I expect the opponent to be ready and highly motivated. It is always easier to play at home and therefore I expect a very hard game. Nevertheless we remain optimistic. »
Just like in the previous games, Luxembourg had some goals before the start of this game: „We can not have more than 10 turnovers and we need to hit outside shots, that is our chance to stay in the game. In our first meeting, we only made 4/16 threes, Romania hit 12/37. Rebounding will be important as always for our team. »
With a record of 1 win and 2 losses, Luxembourg still has a chance to enter the next qualification round, even if a possible qualification depends also on the results in other groups. „We will do our best to win this game and maintain our chances of advancing to the next round. If we win this game, we are still in the race so that is what we are trying to accomplish. In addition, it is a great situation for our team to be in the race to qualify for another round, this is something that rarely happened in the past so that we can be excited. We want to enjoy the game and make it as hard as possible for Romania to beat us. »
How can Luxembourg qualify ? –> How can our national team qualify for the next round?
The roster for the game against Romania:
Bob Melcher (Amicale Steinsel)
Philippe Gutenkauf (Etzella Ettelbruck)
Yannick Verbeelen (Sparta Bertrange)
Jonathan Diederich (Urspring, Germany)
Ivor Kuresevic (Amicale Steinsel)
Joé Kalmes (T71 Dudelange)
Clancy Rugg (Basket Esch)
Alex Laurent (Gladiators Trier, Germany)
Derek Wilson Jr (Arantia Larochette)
Ben Kovac (Den Helder Suns, Netherlands)
Lou Demuth (US Heffingen)
Thomas Grün (Basket Esch)
Head coach: Ken Diederich
Assistant coaches: Pit Rodenbourg, Denis Toroman
Standings (group B):
Romania (4 points, 2 wins, 0 losses)
Luxembourg (4 points, 1 win, 2 losses)
Albania (4 points, 1 win, 2 losses)
Previous results in this competition and upcoming games in group B:
Albania – Luxembourg 92:89
Luxembourg – Romania 70:73
Romania – Albania 101:84
Luxembourg – Albania 86:75
Romania – Luxembourg (June 30, 2022)
Albania – Romania (July 3, 2022)
