MIES (Switzerland) - The quest towards Qatar 2027 continues in Europe, as 16 teams will be back in action across four groups in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 European Qualifiers First Round on Thursday.
In Groups A and C, Spain and Türkiye are looking to stay perfect, while Groups B and D are yet to have a single qualified team for the Second Round.
With every result carrying through to the Second Round, each game has the potential to make or break a nation's hopes of eventually reaching the World Cup.
Who do you think will have a successful start to Window 3 on Thursday? Cast your vote below and let us know!
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Ukraine's last two World Cup Qualifiers games: 0-2. Previous six: 5-1. Their star player Oleksandr Kovliar has scored in double figures in each game so far, including 31 points against Georgia in the reverse fixture, the most by any Ukrainian player in the Qualifiers history.
Georgia’s Tornike Shengelia has scored 20+ points in 10 games in the World Cup Qualifiers, more often than any other player in Europe. He has averaged 18.0 points and 8.0 rebounds in three games against Ukraine in this competition.
Great Britain have won just one of their last 13 games in the World Cup Qualifiers, but that sole victory happened on the road, already during the qualification for the 2027 tournament (90-84 at Iceland); Team GB will try to win multiple games in the same campaign for the first time.
Ignas Sargiunas has scored 18 points or more in three of his four games in the Qualifiers, including a 27-point performance against Great Britain - his highest scoring game in the competition.
Greece have made 23.5 points per game off turnovers, the highest average in Europe in the Qualifiers, while Romania have scored only 9.8 points per game in that fashion, the second lowest average in the competition.
Vasileios Toliopoulos scored 27 points in his most recent game with Greece in the World Cup Qualifiers, after tallying 28 points in his previous five appearances in the competition.
Spain have won 10 of their last 11 games in the Qualifiers; they have conceded fewer than 75 points in nine of their 10 most recent games in the competition.
Denmark are yet to lead by more than five points in a single game in the Qualifiers.
Montenegro have won both of their away games in the World Cup 2027 Qualifiers but have never recorded three successive such victories; they now face Portugal, the side who handed them their heaviest Qualifiers defeat ever (-21, November 2025).
Portugal have made only 9.5 turnovers per game, the lowest ratio in the region.
Serbia have lost their most recent two games in the World Cup Qualifiers but have never lost three on the bounce in the competition.
Aleksa Avramovic (Serbia) has scored 15+ points in six of his last eight games in the World Cup Qualifiers.
Bosnia and Herzegovina have won their last two games in the World Cup Qualifiers but have never enjoyed a longer run in a single campaign. They have won five of their last six home games in the competition.
Türkiye have won their first four games in the World Cup 2027 Qualifiers and will attempt to equal their best winning run in a single Qualifiers campaign (W5 in June-November 2018). They are yet to trail by more than two points in a game of this current campaign.
Tarik Biberovic has scored 20+ points in three of his four games in the World Cup Qualifiers, including 20 in the reverse fixture against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Iceland and Italy have already faced each other three times in the World Cup Qualifiers, with Italy winning at home in February 2022 (95-87) and Iceland winning the other two encounters: at home in February 2022 (107-105) and at Italy in this qualification (81-76).
Elvar Fridriksson (Iceland) has scored 25+ points in six games in the World Cup Qualifiers, more often than any other European player. He reached that total in each of his previous three games against Italy.
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