Serbia Open World Cup Qualifiers at Switzerland
Serbia's basketball team, led by Nikola Jokic, plays away at Switzerland in Fribourg on Thursday, then hosts Bosnia and Herzegovina in Belgrade four days later.
- Serbia play away at Switzerland in Fribourg on Thursday at 8 p.m., in round five of Group C of the 2027 World Cup qualifiers.
- Denver center Nikola Jokic leads the squad, and coach Dusan Alimpijevic has named 13 players for the trip.
- In a warm-up game, the Eagles beat Czechia 90-76.
- On July 6, Serbia host Bosnia and Herzegovina in Belgrade at the Aleksandar Nikolic Hall.
On Wednesday morning, as the bus filled up ahead of the trip to the airport, the best basketball player on the planet stood in line for the flight to Switzerland. Nikola Jokic has nothing left to prove to anyone, and yet there he was, in the national team jersey, ready to open a seemingly ordinary qualifying window that is anything but ordinary for the Eagles.
Serbia play away at Switzerland in Fribourg on Thursday at 8 p.m., in round five of Group C of the 2027 World Cup qualifiers. Coach Dusan Alimpijevic trimmed his wider list down to thirteen names, and among them is the NBA MVP, the man around whom every Serbian idea on the floor is built.
What the Eagles bring to Fribourg
The final check before the points that count went the way it was supposed to. In a warm-up game the Eagles beat Czechia 90-76, just enough to shorten the rotation and see who holds the rhythm in Alimpijevic’s system. The Trento coach from the EuroLeague brought aggressive defense and a fast transition game to the national side, and Jokic is the one who slows that machine down when needed and speeds it up when the group stalls.
The only bad news came out of the locker room. Ognjen Dobric will not travel because of a fractured finger on his right hand, picked up against Czechia, so he misses both Switzerland and Bosnia. A short bench is never welcome, but the depth on this list is such that the coach has the bodies to cover those minutes.
Switzerland currently sit at the bottom of Group C, and they are unlikely to trouble a team that has Jokic on the floor. Still, an away game is an away game, and European basketball has shown too many times that favorites get punished when they turn up relaxed. Alimpijevic knows this, which is exactly why he is leaving nothing to chance.
Why does this window matter more than it looks?
On paper, two points in Fribourg are a formality. In the standings, though, things are tighter than they seem. Turkey lead Group C with eight points, while Serbia and Bosnia share second place with six each, and the top three sides advance to the next stage. That is why this double program is not just a warm-up but also a fight for the position that decides how you enter the closing rounds of qualifying.
The real test comes only on Sunday. Four days after Fribourg, on July 6, the Eagles host Bosnia and Herzegovina at Belgrade’s Aleksandar Nikolic Hall, a neighborly clash that always carries an extra charge and, as a rule, fills the stands. A win over Switzerland makes that game much calmer; a loss would turn it into real drama.
What is encouraging is that Jokic once again is not skipping national team duty. After a long and grueling NBA season, the man who could pick rest is picking the jersey with the state crest. That is a message both to the younger players on the list and to the fans who expect a medal from this generation at every major tournament.
It all begins tomorrow night in Fribourg, with the first jump ball of a new cycle. Do you believe Serbia, with Jokic leading the way, will close this qualifying window with two wins?
