On Thursday, Luxembourg will face Kosovo for the first of 2 games this week in the pre-qualification tournament. Luxembourg will play against the host Kosovo, a team that has to win this game, the country has the clear goal to qualify for the main qualification round.
Pit Rodenbourg is responsible for the scouting of the FLBB staff. He knows that Kosovo was put in a bad light in the last bubble because their „roster was reduced and they had to play with different players than they usually do. This time, they will be much stronger. » In November, Kosovo lost both games with a big point difference. Against Slovakia, Kosovo lost 67:91 while they lost 62:86 to Iceland a few days later. These results could haven given the impression that Kosovo is not that strong, however, for this game, they will have different players on their roster and also play at home, which will guarantee them another advantage.
„All of their top players are available. Furthermore, they have an American guard Miles Divine (highlight-video) on board. He will make the team much stronger as he is a very fast guard who can score the ball. Dardan Berisha is a very strong scorer who hurt us a lot already last year . Kastrati is a tall play maker who is very dangerous too and 2.05 m tall Morina is difficult to handle under the baskets. All in all, the quality in their team is high. Maybe, they do not play that well as a team or as fast as we do, but it will be a very difficult challenge for us » says Rodenbourg.
In the first meeting against Kosovo, Luxembourg lost 80:84 in the Coque, that game was played in February of 2020! It is time for Luxembourg to take revenge, the clear goal is to win this game, but the players and coaching staff knows that a perfect game is needed to fulfill this goal.
Other articles:
–>Team Luxembourg has arrived in Kosovo with high(er) expectations
–> Video-interview with Thomas Grün before the national team games this week
