All You Need To Know: FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifier Ireland v Switzerland

Ireland take on Switzerland in our fifth game of FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 European Pre-Qualifying in Fribourg on Thursday. The Group A fixture will tip-off at 18:30, with live coverage on the TG4 Player, as well as the FIBA YouTube Channel.

COMPETITION FORMAT

Ireland have been contesting Group A in FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Pre-Qualifying alongside Switzerland, Kosovo and Azerbaijan. This is the final window of the first phase of qualification, with games taking place in two previous windows over the last 12 months. Mark Keenan's side come into the game in second place in the group behind Switzerland. Our last window in November saw Ireland complete a sweep at home, defeating Azerbaijan 91-67 and Kosovo 91-85 in front of a sold out National Basketball Arena in Dublin.

The winners of Group A, B and C will advance to the second phase of the competition, as will the best ranked, second place team from the three group's combined. Ireland currently sit in that position, with Luxembourg, Norway (Group B) and Armenia (Group C) all in contention. 

Speaking at Ireland's media day on Tuesday, head coach Mark Keenan said: 

Look it's it's about taking away what they (Switzerland) love to do, you know. They're they're a great short, real screen and short roll team and that's hurt us in the past. So we've just got to key in on, trying to contain that. It's all it's all to play for, so we want to go into the next round. We want to elevate ourselves to another level. We set a great bar for ourselves in November in the last window with the way we played, so we want to keep that standard open, try and push on."

WATCH

The game will be broadcast live on the TG4 Player here with tip-off at 1830 or on the FIBA YouTube Channel.

SQUAD NEWS

Taiwo Badmus, Aidan Igiehon and Paul Dick will miss the game due to injury, while Roy Downey is the other member of the squad from Ireland's back-to-back win's in November who misses out. 

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OPPOSITION VIEW

A victory for the Swiss national team would guarantee top spot in Group A and move them into the next phase for the second ocassion in their history.  They are unbeaten in FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 European Pre-Qualifying, taking the reverse fixture 86-63 in Dublin. Their players to watch out for are Anthony Polite, who leads the team in scoring with 14.5 points a contest, alongside Jonathan Kazadi and Selim Fofana, who both average 14 points a game.

IRELAND MEN’S TEAM ROSTER

Adrian O’Sullivan (Irish Guide Dogs Ballincollig @MTU), Conor Quinn (Belfast Star), David Lehane, Kyle Hosford, James Hannigan (UCC Demons), John Carroll (EJ Sligo All-Stars), Jordan Blount (Flexachem KCYMS), Matt Treacy (Snaefell, Iceland), Neal Quinn (Aix Maurienne Savoie Basket, France), Rapolas Buivydas (Garveys Tralee Warriors), Seán Flood (London Lions, United Kingdom), Sean Jenkins (Griffith College Éanna),