The Bulgarian national basketball team visits world champion Germany in its last match of the EuroBasket 2025 qualifiers. The match at the “Brose Arena“ in Bamberg starts at 18:30.
Three days ago in Botevgrad, the “Lions“ dramatically defeated Sweden after overtime with 81:77 after a unique match by our big star Alexander Vezenkov, who scored 40 points. However, the victory turned out to be insufficient and the Scandinavians maintained their advantage in direct matches due to their 84:70 victory on their territory a year ago. Thus, Bulgaria remained in the last fourth position with an asset of 2 wins and 3 losses, the same as the Swedes.
However, the chances of qualifying for the European finals for Bulgaria remain, but for this purpose we must win against Germany, and at the same time Montenegro will have to defeat Sweden by a significant margin as a guest.
The bad news for the coach Rosen Barchovski was that Alexander Vezenkov and Cody Miller-McIntyre did not receive permits from Olympiacos and Red Star respectively for the decisive match with Germany, and after the match with Sweden, Ilian Pishchikov was called up to the team. Coach Rosen Barchovski also had naturalized Americans Dee Bost and Brandon Young in his plans, but in the end neither of them will play in the upcoming match.
Exactly a year ago, the “lions“ created a real sensation, beating the world champion with 67:62 points without Vezenkov in Botevgrad. Now our team needs another big success and although the chance is minimal, it exists and must be used, as coach Barchovski shared.
„We have to try, the chance is very small, but we must not miss it. "Even if it's 1%, we have to try," were the words of the specialist before the team's departure for Germany on Saturday.
Bulgaria's squad:
Pavlin Ivanov (Menorca, Spain), Yordan Minchev (Spiru Charleroi, Belgium), Dimitar Dimitrov (Palencia, Spain), Emil Stoilov (Menorca, Spain), Konstantin Kostadinov (Tenerife, Spain), Georgi Boyanov (Balkan), Ivan Alipiev, Konstantin Toshkov (Balkan), Lachezar Toshkov (Minor 2015), Simeon Lepichev (Spartak Pleven) and Iliyan Pishchikov (Balkan).