On Wednesday, at 17:00h, the National Team of Kosovo will play against Bulgaria, in Sofia, in third game of Eurobasket 2017 Qualifiers.
Despite two defeats in the first two games, our basketball players are highly motivated and the atmosphere within the team is very good, so our boys believe that on Wednesday they will do their best on the floor and will show a really good game against Bulgarians.
In the first game of the European Championship Qualifiers, Kosovo was defeated by Slovenia 113:68, and in the game that took place on the weekend in "Minatori" hall, in Mitrovica Kosovo lost to Ukraine 70:63. Our basketball players showed a very good game against Ukrainians, and were very close to victory, but in the last five minutes of the game Ukraine with their experience and great defense managed to win the game.
In the first two qualifying games Bulgaria was defeated by Ukraine and Slovenia.
Arben Krasniqi, selector of Kosovo NT:
“We must do our best to play without fear and pressure, like we did in the game against Ukraine. We will go on the floor to get the best results. Basketball players have rested on Sunday, we practiced today in Prishtina, and we will practice on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning in Sofia. We have no problem with injuries and all the players are ready for the match. We have analyzed Bulgarians game and they are a team that runs a lot. They have a very good player, Aleksandar Vezenkov, who plays with Justin Doellman in Barcelona. Unlike Ukraine, Bulgaria has no massive center and we will try to use this to our advantage and also other priorities that we have. We also have some shortcomings, but we are trying to eliminate them. We are still learning and everybody is trying to do their best. We play every game to win, against Ukraine we showed a completely different face and we’ll make efforts to continue to improve in other games that await us. We are trying to lift the team spirit and only after we achieve that 100% we can expect positive results. "
Dardan Berisha, basketball player of Kosovo NT:
“This will be another strong game. Bulgarians will try to make things difficult for us as they are in the same position as we are; they lost two games and will seek to take advantage of the host territory to defeat us. However, we will go there to do our best and get positive results, because we are aware of the importance of this game. We played well against Ukraine, but we will improve even more after each game. "
Drilon Hajrizi, basketball player of Kosovo NT:
“After every game I am very pleased that we have increased the tempo of the game and hope that in the next one we’ll do the same, play better than we played in the last game. The match with Ukraine has been very difficult. I am satisfied with the game that we showed and with a little luck we could’ve won the game. If we commit and play a good team game and play like we did against Ukraine, I am convinced that we will win the third match. "