The Belgian Lions traveled to Newcastle with 12 players to take part in a World Cup qualifier against Great Britain. The 12 squad also includes some youngsters: “It’s a great opportunity to combine our talents,” says head coach Jacques Staas.
Mathematically, the Belgian national team can still qualify for the World Cup, which would be a first for Belgium. In practice, a lot has to happen before you can write this scenario.
The Belgian Lions must win their last two international matches, against Great Britain and Turkey, with the hope that Serbia will lose twice more.
In Friday’s match against Great Britain, the number of players was reduced from 15 to 12 players. Antwerp Giants’ Jean-Marc Moema and Robbie Roger have called in sick, and Loic Schwarz is unavailable for family reasons.
It is a great opportunity to integrate our talents and is particularly interesting for the future.
With Xander Pentillon, Sippy Lydijn and Tess de Ridder, the squad includes 3 players born in 2003.
“With Haris Bratanovic (21 years old) and Ferencz Bliegenberg (22 years old), we also have a particularly young squad for the match against Great Britain. It is a great opportunity to integrate our talents and particularly interesting for the future,” says high performance director Jack Stas. .
Retin Obasohan (ASVEL) and Ismaila Baku (Virtus Polonia) are unavailable this week due to EuroLeague commitments. If the Belgian Lions win in Newcastle, the strong players will be included in the squad for Monday’s match against Turkey.
12 Belgian lions
- Frenz Bleigenberg (Ostend)
- Haris Bratanovic (Ostend)
- This de Ridder (Antwerp Giants)
- Vincent Kestelot (Heidelberg)
- Manu Lecomte (Buducnost Podgorica)
- Seppi Lidgen (Okapi Aalst)
- Alex Liebert (Spiro Charleroi)
- Xander Pentillon (Ostend)
- Milan Samardzic (Spiro Charleroi)
- Jonathan Taboo (Canto)
- Kevin Tomba (Liège Basket)
- Thibaut Vanderhaeghen (Leuven Bears)
The second preliminary round of the World Cup
| Software group I | ||
|---|---|---|
| Belgium | Britain | 72-57 |
| Greece | Belgium | 85-68 |
| turkey | Belgium | 86-52 |
| Belgium | Greece | 70-72 |
| Britain | Belgium | 59-88 |
| Belgium | turkey | 54-82 |
| Position in the first group | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M | W | Fifth | points | ||
| 1. | Latvia | 10 | 9 | 1 | 19 |
| 2. | Serbia | 10 | 6 | 4 | 16 |
| 3. | Greece | 10 | 6 | 4 | 16 |
| 4. | turkey | 10 | 4 | 6 | 14 |
| 5. | Belgium | 10 | 4 | 6 | 14 |
| 6. | Britain | 10 | 1 | 9 | 11 |
Teams take their points from the first preliminary round with them, and the results for the last in the group are forfeited. Belgium was already in the group with Latvia and Serbia in the first preliminary round and will no longer meet these countries in the second preliminary round. The top three in each of the four groups can qualify for the World Cup in 2023.
