Our women’s national team will host Italy in the FIBA 2023 Eurobasket Qualifiers at the Coque in Kirchberg on Thursday, February 9th (19:00).
Esmeralda Skrijelj is one of the team leaders for Luxembourg, the 27-year old player of Amicale Steinsel is Luxembourg’s best passer in the Qualifiers with 3.8 assists per game and the second best rebounder (7.8 rebounds per game) and she played more than 26 minutes per game over the first 4 games.
„We added a lot of young players to our roster for this game because several key players are missing. Obviously this is a new situation for our team but we make the best out of it and it is a good opportunity to prepare our younger players for the next years. My role is to keep the energy and motivation alive that was in this group after our games in November » says Skrijelj who was a key part of a team that was able to shock Switzerland on the road and come home with a win.
Italy will be the opponent in the Coque in Kirchberg, the country is ranked 16th in the FIBA World rankings and 7th in the European ranking. „Every game that we play at home is a highlight for Luxembourg, but clearly games against nations like Italy are special. In a qualification round, any opponent is possible and now we have the chance to host Italy. I hope that there will be plenty of spectators to encourage us, the crowd helped us a lot over the last games. Furthermore, we played well on the road in Italy and we are confident that we can show another strong game. Our supporters were fantastic over the last games and I hope that the gym will be crowded once again. We will definitely show the fighting spirit and try to represent our country in the best possible way. »
The goal is to show a strong performance at the Coque against some of Europe’s top basketball players. „We have nothing to lose against Italy. Our goal is to show a great fighting spirit over 40 minutes. we will try to play under control and be organized the entire game, that will be extremely important. We want to show the spectators and ourselves that we are able to adapt with our new group and show a strong performance. »
Here is the roster of team Luxembourg for the games:
Bidinger Charlie (Musel Pikes)
Blasen Emma (T71 Dudelange)
Coulon Kyra (Basket Esch)
Etute Faith Ehi (T71 Dudelange)
Geniets Mandy (T71 Dudelange)
Hämäläinen Isa (Résidence Walfer)
Irthum Liz (AB Contern)
Jablonowski Lisa (no club)
Mossong Nadia (T71 Dudelange)
Schumacher Laetitia (Amicale Steinsel)
Skrijelj Esmeralda (Amicale steinsel)
Skrijelj Seila (T71 Dudelange)
Wolff Cathrin (Gréngewald Hueschtert)
Head coach: Mariusz Dziurdzia
Assistant coach: Pierre Rodenbourg
Kiné: Andrea Sinka
Team manager: Fabienne Deister
ticket presale –> Ticket presale for Luxembourg – Italy on February 9th
