We are starting this second day of the round of 16 of EuroBasket 2022… very slowly, with an original match between Poland and Ukraine, two teams which have largely deserved their qualification but which we will not logically find “on the box” in a week. But you know what ? We will still watch this game.
Let’s put some order in our ideas: when we look at the groups (C and D) in which we have fought for ten days, we actually say to ourselves that it is… rather logical to find these two opposing “middle” nations in round of 16 and therefore 40 minutes from being in the European Top 8. The course of Mateusz Ponitka and his eggs? Apart from a beating received by the Lapps, nothing too crazy to get your teeth into, with logical victories against Israel, the Czech Republic (without Satoranski) and the weak Holland. The Ukrainians? Started at top speed with a huge victory in Milan against Italyand narrowly defeated by the Croats in a match that could have given them second place in Group C behind the untouchable Greece.
The strengths of each other? The two NBAers Svi Mikhailiuk and Alex Len or even Voldymyr Herun and Bogdan Breakneck (Blyznyuk) for the yellows and blues, while for Poland the hothead Ponitka carries his team in the company of the former villeurbannais – among others – AJ Slaughter and the two skiers Balcerowski and Sokolowski. In the end, it gives a match that promises to be open, perfect to start a new big day, and a round of 16 which will therefore see its winner have the “chance” to go and challenge Luka Doncic and Slovenia in the quarter-finals. .
The rosters
Poland : Aleksander Balcerowski, Aaron Cel, Aleksander Dziewa, Jakub Garbacz, Lukasz Kolenda, Michal Michalak, Dominik Olejniczak, Mateusz Ponitka, Jakub Schenk, AJ Slaughter, Michal Sokolowski, Jaroslaw Zyskowski
Ukraine : Bohdan Blizniuk, Viacheslav Bobrov, Volodimir Gerun, Oleksiy Len, Denis Lukashov, Sviatoslav Mikhailiuk, Artem Pustoviy, Issuf Sanon, Ilya Sidorov, Dmitro Skapintsev, Ivan Tkachenko, Vitaly Zotov
The journey of the two teams
- Poland – Czech Republic: 99-84
- Pologne – Finland : 59-89
- Poland – Israel: 85-76
- Poland – Netherlands: 75-69
- Pologne – Serbia : 69-96
- Ukraine – Great Britain: 90-61
- Ukraine – Estonia: 74-73
- Ukraine – Italy: 84-73
- Ukraine – Greece : 79-99
- Ukraine – Croatia : 85-90
Berlin, 12 p.m., we’ll probably have bits of crust in our eyes but we’ll be there and there, because it’s been five years since we last had a Euro, because we’re not going to wait either the finale to turn on the TV. Come on, can we do that with a little homemade brunch?