Scheduled in Berlin this Sunday evening (8:45 p.m.), the meeting Greece – Czech Republic will close the ball for the round of 16. A last match as a dessert and which should allow us to attend a new festival of Mister Giannis Antetokounmpo, whose ankle would no longer be a problem.
Inevitably, we had some cold sweats when the Greek Freak left the last group match against Estonia because of an ankle injury. That didn’t stop him from going out with 25 pawns on the clock because Giannis is the kind of guy who scores more than a point a minute, and it didn’t stop Greece from finishing quietly in the lead either. his group. Nevertheless it could change two or three things for the round of 16 against the Czech Republic this Sunday. Not that Tomas Satoransky and his buddies represent the wrath of war, but it’s never trivial when the leader of a team and incidentally one of the three best basketball players in the world is diminished in a cleaver match. Fortunately for the show and unfortunately for the Czechs, the latest news is reassuring, with Greece coach Dimitris Itoudis announcing that the Freak and his ankle are operational for tonight’s game. So, big blowout in sight? After their initial victory against Croatia in a pure basket ball game, Giannis and his pals ruled out Italy before traveling against Great Britain, Ukraine and Estonia. The Czechs managed to snatch their qualification in the last match against Israel thanks to a big Sato, and pushed by their public in Prague. So yes it looks a lot like an unbalanced fight. But if there is one thing we learned about the first matches of the eighth, it is that nothing is ever written in advance. So distrust.
The rosters
Greece: Dimitris Agravanis, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kostas Antetokounmpo, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Nick Calathes, Tyler Dorsey, Giannoulis Larentzakis, Michalis Lountzis, Georgios Papagiannis, Kostas Papanikolaou, Ioannis Papapetrou, Kostas Sloukas
Czech Republic : Patrik Auda, Ondrej Balvin, Jaromir Bohacik, Vojtech Hruban, David Jelinek, Vit Krejci, Martin Kriz, Tomas Kyzlink, Martin Peterka, Tomas Satoransky, Ondrej Sehnal, Jan Vesely
The journey of the two teams
- Greece – Croatia: 89-85
- Greece – Italy: 85-81
- Greece – Great Britain: 93-77
- Greece – Ukraine : 99-79
- Greece – Estonia: 90-69
- Czech Republic – Poland : 84-99
- Czech Republic – Serbia : 68-81
- Republic Czech – Hollande : 88-80
- Czech Republic – Finland : 88-98
- Czech Republic – Israel: 88-77
A little divided between a huge blow-out and Czechs who still have some arguments to put forward given their recent international background. One thing is for sure, we know one who will grate Czech tonight, and that’s one of the many reasons to be there at 8:45 p.m.