Our national team will have one more game in the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 pre-qualifiers. On June 30th, Luxembourg will face Romania on the road.
10 teams are playing in a total of 3 groups in this pre-qualification round. The winner of each group and the 2 best second placed teams will enter the next round. So when will Luxembourg qualify?
Option 1 – win the group
With 1 win and 2 losses at the moment, Luxembourg needs a win against Romania and a loss by Romania against Albania in the final group game to have a chance to win the group. However, the points differential would make the difference in a potential 3-team-tie so that winning the group seems to be wishful thinking at the moment.
Option 2 – enter next round as the best second placed team
Luxembourg could enter the next qualification round as the best second placed team. They need to win against Romania on June 30th. Then, they will « compete » against the second placed teams from the other groups. At this moment, it is most likely that Switzerland or Austria (group A) or Norway or Denmark (group C) could be in a tie situation with Luxembourg (2:2 record). With multiple games remaining to be played in all 3 groups, we must wait and see how other nations will play.
Note: To determine the best ranked second-placed team out of the three groups, the results against fourth-placed teams in the groups of four teams will be disregarded to compare the teams on a like-for-like basis as per the official Basketball rules. This means that the results in group A against Cyprus (most likely) will be deleted in order to compare the teams with nations from other groups.
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)
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)
Xavier Robert Francois (Résidence Walferdange)
Head coach: Ken Diederich
Assistant coaches: Pit Rodenbourg, Denis Toroman
