It will be a historic evening as Kosovo is playing their first official basketball game as an independent nation.

It will also be the first time in twelve years that Slovenia is playing qualifying matches for the European basketball championship, as they made it to the tournament directly in the last five instances.

It was last year at the 2015 EuroBasket that Slovenia failed to secure a berth for the next year's tournament, taking the 12th place and being relegated to the qualifying stage.

The match with Kosovo starts the qualifying campaign that will last through 17 September and see Slovenia also play Bulgaria and Ukraine in a round-robin competition.

In order to qualify for the 2017 EuroBasket, held in Romania, Israel, Turkey and Finland, Slovenia need to finish first in the group or be among the four best second-placed teams in the seven qualifying groups.

Team captain Goran Dragić admitted he knew nothing about Kosovo, adding however that "their players certainly know how to play basketball and considering that it will be their first official game in history, they will give their best."

Head coach Igor Kokoškov added that that team "will stick to the plan and try to meet the expectations of the public, which demands from us to qualify for the European championship with authority."