The big moment for our national team has arrived!
Tonight (21:00, ERT1, Novasports Start, sport-fm.gr, News Bulletin 247), the Hellas confronts her Croatian in the grand final of the SEF Pre-Olympic tournament, in front of a stadium full of Greek fans!
Having overcome the first three obstacles and in fact with characteristic comfort, the “blue and white” is invited tonight to overcome one more, the last one, in order to take the coveted ticket to the Paris Olympicsattending the great celebration of sports for the first time after 16 years and the 2008 Beijing Games.
His team Vasilis Spanoulis made it to the end of the… road, producing excellent and dominant performances in the three matches leading up to the tournament. In the group phase and in the first matchday, he broke through with a score 109-82 the Dominican Republicwhile in the second she also prevailed very easily Egypt with 93-71.
In yesterday’s semi-final, the “official favorite”, the one taken from the best dreams of the Greek fans, crushed the Slovenia of Luka Doncic with 96-68, solemnly and in the midst of apotheosis, taking the ticket for tonight’s final! Distinguished many, as, in addition to the MVP, Thomas Walkup (19p., 6p., 2p.), double figures were also Toliopoulos (17p. with 6/6 in the field, 4/4tr.), John Antetokounmpo (13p., 4p. in 21 minutes) and Mitoglou (11 p., 6 p.). Nick Kalathis (9p., 11as.) was outstanding once again, while Papagiannis (6p., 10p.) and Larentzakis (9p., 3/5tr.) also made a great contribution.
As in the two matches of the group, so also against the Slovenians, the National Team had high rates behind 6.75m. (14/34 sq., 41.2%), while once again he had excellent ball movement, which translates into in the 23 final passes! Notable is her total number in the tournament, having distributed in three matches 86 assists!
On the other hand, Croatian secured her presence in the final… after hard work and suffering against the fighting Dominican Republicprevailing on me score 80-77. The “Croatian” showed signs of fatigue and lack of concentration in her game, allowing the Dominicans to be within reach of qualification throughout the match. In fact, in the final, Duarte missed a three-pointer in overtime. The leader was Zoobats with 25 points without missing a shot (10/10d., 5/6b.), while Saric and Hezonia they stayed in the… shallow, having many missed shots.
With the exception of this trio of players, plus Jalyn Smith, Joseph César’s ensemble has nothing extraordinary to show for it, other than simple rockers. It is a big “weapon” for Croatia the tall Zubac-Saric duoso we wait great battles in the racket with Giannis, Mitoglou and Papagianni. The truth is that with the exception of their premiership in the group and the emphatic victory over Slovenia, in the next two matches, against New Zealand (90-86 loss) and the Dominican Republic, they showed a very modest face.
In the competitions now, the only absence for Greece is that of him Costa Antetokounmpo who was injured in the match against Egypt and was left out of the semi-final as well. The Croats will line up in full.
As for her tradition finally, you have Greece and Croatiahave met 24 times at Men’s level, with the Greek team having 14 victories. Their most recent meeting was in the group stage of EuroBasket 2022, while at the level of the Pre-Olympic Tournaments they had met in 1992 in Murcia and in 2016 in Turin, with the Croatians winning twice.
The games of the two countries in detail:
28/05/1992-Trieste (Friendly): 73-90
26/06/1992-Murtia (Pre-Olympic Tournament): 63-102
03/07/1993- Munich (Eurobasket): 59-99
10/08/1994-Toronto (Mundobasket): 55-81
08/14/1994-Toronto (Mundobasket): 60-78
07/02/1995-Athens (Eurobasket): 68-73
15/06/2002-Marousi (Acropolis): 84-71
05/09/2003-Boras (Eurobasket): 77-76
19/08/2005-San Giorgio (Friendly): 70-78
09/09/2005-Madrid (Friendly): 76-62
31/07/2006-Marousi (Friendly): 79-54
09/09/2007-Madrid (Eurobasket 2007): 81-78
09/07/2008-Maroussi (Friendly): 77-64
07/08/2008-Beijing (Friendly): 86-71
08/09/2009-Poznan (Eurobasket): 76-68
08/08/2010-Nicosia (Friendly): 90-81
05/09/2011-Alitus (Eurobasket): 74-69
09/08/2013-Strasbourg (Friendly): 87-85
16/09/2013-Ljubljana (Eurobasket): 88-92
10/08/2014-Po (Friendly): 66-68
02/09/2014-Seville (Mundobasket): 76-65
06/09/2015-Zagreb (Eurobasket): 72-70
07/08/2016-Torino (Pre-Olympic Tournament): 61-66
02/09/2022-Milan (Eurobasket): 89-85
Source: Sport Fm
I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
