Slovenia Fall to Montenegro in Friendly
Slovenia and Montenegro met in a friendly match on August 22nd, 2026, and Montenegro came out on top with a 85-78 victory. The game took place in Ljubljana, though the venue details are not specified in the available data. By then, both sides had been testing their form against various international opponents over the preceding months.
Looking at the recent results, Slovenia had shown some inconsistency. They beat Latvia 89-86 on August 19th, but before that they had lost to Estonia 94-93 and to Germany 91-99. To be fair, they had also found success against Italy with an 84-77 win and against Sweden with a 94-83 victory. The pattern suggests a team still finding its rhythm.
Montenegro's recent run tells a different story. They had beaten Romania 80-75 on November 30th, 2025, but before that losses to Portugal 62-83 and to Great Britain 83-89. They also lost to Finland 65-85 and to Lithuania 67-94 in August. And here's the thing — the result in Ljubljana suggests something shifted.
The margin of seven points is not enormous, but it is enough to matter. Slovenia had been competitive in some of their recent fixtures, particularly that narrow defeat to Estonia, but they could not hold off a Montenegro side that seemed to have found its footing. One mistake ends it in these tight games, and it is unclear which side made the critical error.
What this result means in the broader context is limited without standings data. The match was a friendly, so the table goes out of the window in these games. What remains is a record of performance, and on this occasion Montenegro extended their confidence while Slovenia will need to work out what went wrong.
The final score of 85-78 reflects a match where both sides traded blows. Slovenia had momentum from their win over Latvia, but Montenegro responded with a performance that saw them through to the end. The wheels came off at some point, though without minute-by-minute data it is impossible to say when.