After the incredible success of Croatia’s U16 basketball stars, Croatia’s basketball fever is far from over – we’re less than a month away from the return of Croatia’s A-team!
The Croatia men’s basketball team will meet on August 29th to prepare for the upcoming 2019 World Cup qualifiers. Before the first qualifying match against Lithuania (September 14th in Osijek), Croatia’s basketball players will play two preparatory matches against Slovenia, reports Index.hr on August 19, 2018.
While the first match will be played in Celje, the return match is scheduled on September 5th at the Arena in Varaždin.
The good news is that the Croatian national team will play with four NBA players in Varaždin, including Bojan Bogdanović, Dario Šarić, Ivica Zubac, and Ante Žižić.
Croatia coach Dražen Anzulović will have the aforementioned NBA players for the match against Lithuania in Osijek and away in Poland (September 17), though Hezonja and Bender have pulled out of national team duties. The returnee Kruno Simon will also be available to play.
Lithuania has a much better record in their World Cup qualifying run so far, winning all six games they have played. If you recall, Croatia had a rocky start in the qualifiers and has won only three of the six games played so far. Croatia has thus suffered defeats to Romania, Italy, and the Netherlands in the last year.
After Lithuania, Croatia will go on to play Poland on September 17th, Hungary on November 29th, and Lithuania away on December 2nd to finish off 2018.
