Buy missed chances and a three at the end killed the hopes of basketball Bulgaria
The Bulgarian national basketball team played quite a strong and hearty game, but in the end they lost their chances to continue to the final stage of the world qualifiers.
The home team lost a heart attack with 73:76 visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina in a game that was decided by a three-pointer with a second left.
Due to the development of the other group match, in which the already qualified Lithuanian team ingloriously lost their host to the Czech Republic, Bulgaria had to look must win by at least 10 points in Sarajevo.
In addition, Bulgaria was without its best player – Alexander Vezenkov, who remained on the sidelines due to an injury in bed, and an injury took out another of our main players – Stanimir Marinov.
And despite this difficult situation, despite the fact that a year and a half ago Bulgaria lost in this hall with a difference of 39 points, our team played hard and must seriously regret not achieving its goal.
At the beginning of the last part, there is an advance of five points and a whole quarter to accumulate the five more points we need. In those moments, Bulgaria’s game was arguing, our shooting from the three is impeccable, the Bosnians looked ready to fail, but it didn’t work out.
7 free kick misses and a few stupid mistakes in decisive moments cost us the chances of the successes we needed, which would have sent us into the next phase.
Even in the seconds before the end, the score is equal, which does not give a chance to follow the match in overtime, where you are looking for this difference of 10 points and that is the goal of Bulgaria. 15 seconds before the siren, the Bosnians from the two penalty kicks left, but unfortunately they won the battle after the second miss, the ball reached Donan Musa, who with a three-pointer from quite a long distance achieved everything in this match.
Bulgaria finished fourth in a group with Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Bosnia, but with their play in recent months, there is no hope that we will not be mere runners-up at the European Championship.
Otherwise, the first two parts in Sarajevo developed quite evenly, as at halftime the two teams withdrew with a score of 40:36 in favor of the Bosnians, and nothing has yet been decided.
After the break, the naturalized American Dee Bost comes on the stage, who is simply above everyone on the field and inspired Bulgaria for the much sought-after turnaround.
He dictated our every attack, which started the series with many scored three-pointers, and the third quarter ended with a score of 62:58 for Bulgaria, with the first attack on the last Thursday, with a penalty shot, the result was invited to 63:58.
In these moments, however, fate does not turn its back with these decisive omissions in important situations, and perhaps the lack of experience and self-confidence in our players has had its say.
The third of our main competitors was already out of the field – Yordan Minchev, who injured his ankle when landing and had to leave.
Bulgaria are fighting for their hearts to this end, and the scenario of a draw and looking for a victory in extra time looks set to come true when this hat-trick from Janan Moussa scorches our dreams.