CHARLEROI (Belgium) - Belgium fought off any thoughts of a dramatic conclusion to their FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers campaign, claiming a rock solid win over Slovakia to book a direct flight to the Final Round.
Coach Dario Gjergja saw his team defeat Slovakia and Spain in the first window, but then lost both games to Latvia in the November 2024 window. At 2-2, they knew one win would be enough in February, and they wasted no time getting the job done.
At 3-2, they can no longer be caught by Slovakia at 0-5, and they join previously qualified Spain and Latvia from Group C.
Belgium only qualified for the Final Round once from 1981 to 2009, but they made it six straight successful Qualifiers campaigns from 2011 to 2025, proving that basketball is on the rise in the country.
How they qualified
Gameday 1: SVK 60-75 BEL Gameday 2: BEL 58-53 ESP Gameday 3: LAT 75-72 BEL Gameday 4: BEL 83-85 LAT Gameday 5: BEL 93-63 SVK
Remaining fixture
Gameday 6: ESP vs BEL
Qualifiers heroes
The people in charge of the Belgian national team made it their mission to introduce plenty of new names during these Qualifiers, slowly but surely building a team with majority of the players born in the 2000s.
Thijs De Ridder and Jo Van Buggenhout were the revelations of the run, proving they could be relied upon despite their young age, both born in 2003 and both playing in all five games thus far.
However, having the youngsters doesn't mean coach Gjergja forgot about his old reliable squad. Retin Obasohan, Loic Schwartz, Pierre-Antoine Gillet, Hans Vanwijn, Ismael Bako, Jean-Marc Mwema and Kevin Tumba played what feels like a million games together, and their chemistry is what helped build a culture on and off the court for the Belgian Lions.
History
Belgium never finished on the podium in this competition, coming the closest all the way back in 1947, when they were fourth, just behind the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Egypt.
They finished in the Top 10 exactly 10 times, however, only one of those 10 came in this millennium, back in Slovenia in 2013, when they were 9th with three wins in eight games.
Since the new format was introduced in 2015, Belgium were in the Round of 16 twice, in 2015 and 2022, failing to reach it in 2017, when a 1-4 record was good enough for 19th spot.
Best finish: 4th in 1947
Tickets
FIBA