Božidar Maljkovič's players have without a doubt earned to have a competition-free day. After their weak performance against the Czech Republic, which was close to handing Slovenia a big upset, winning 2 points at the end seemed most important. But the next day the Eurobasket hosts thrilled fans with a sacrificed game, and the scalp of the Spaniards, who were by far the best team at the last two European championships in Lithuania and Poland.

"A competition-free day is really welcome, especially for those who played the most. The day is meant to regenerate and prepare for the next opponent" said Domen Lorbek on the day of rest. The Slovenian guard, who scored 5 points against Spain, fell asleep just before daybreak: "It was difficult to fall asleep. But around 5am I did manage. There was simply too much adrenalin after a game like that in an incredible atmosphere".

Vidmar's tooth already fixed

"Right after the game we agreed to stand firm on the ground. This victory won't mean anything if we don't keep on winning. We know that another victory takes us into the next round so we'll be fully prepared for the next games," Lorbek shared the opinion of his teammates, all agreeing after the game to remain firm on the ground.

One of the heroes of Thursday's victory, Gašper Vidmar, who even lost a tooth after a challenge from Marc Gasol, also said a few words: "The dentist opened her dental office so we could fix it right away. At least now it looks close to normal. They immediately put the tooth in a solution. But this is just temporary, after the European Championship I'll have to find something permanent. At the game I immediately put my hand on my mouth and asked for a substitution so I could get myself together. There was plenty of adrenalin and everybody wanted to play. I told the coach I was ok and he sent me back on the court.''

Just let the Spaniards look for excuses

"We just gave it everything we had and helped each other to the best of our abilities. We didn't really play rough, not to mention dirty. I just don't agree with that. If nothing else who lost a tooth? It was just a normal battle on the court." answered the starting center of Slovenia's national team who thrilled with attractive slam dunks, on the comments of Spanish media, that the Slovenians played rough.

Edo Murić was also surprised at the excuses of the championship title holders: "You saw that they took the game seriously. Maybe they're looking for excuses now on how we managed to make a couple of wild shots, but they also hit two threes off the backboard towards the end. I think we played maturely throughout the game. We have to continue playing that way and believe in ourselves. I really don't know what was supposed to be rough. They were always looking to draw personal fouls on us and they also managed to do so in the second half. I think the match was correct and competitive. We won and we don't care if they're trying to look for excuses, just let them. We're moving forward and we're not going to worry about that. We're already thinking about Georgia."