If you like to sweat, to be afraid, to complain then to exult, to criticize then to dub, to cry then to cry, then this day will necessarily have filled you. Four games for this opening of the final phase of EuroBasket 2022, four games and already two extensions, a majestic Spain – Lithuania and above all, a France – Turkey not ready to leave our memories. We debrief, and we go to quarters with Terry Tarpey.
Today’s results
- France – Turkey: 87-86
- Slovenianse – Belgium: 88-72
- Germany – Montenegro : 85-79
- Spain – Lithuania: 102-94
WHAT A DAY. What a day ! We had teased you about a potentially crazy first day, and to tell the truth… we never imagined it would be so bad. We start crescendo? Come on, let’s go to… Slovenia, who chose to trot against Belgium, despite a Luka Doncic who is gaining momentum with 35 pawns, at a fairly low percentage that said. After three quarters, the Belgians were still making life difficult for the reigning European champions, so achieve the feat, but unfortunately the Manu Lecomte and other Pierre-Antoine Gillet ended up cracking, logic respected and Slovenians who will challenge the winner of tomorrow’s midday match between Poland and Ukraine in the quarterfinals. How are you guys? Not too hard ?
In the third game of the day but the second according to which we are talking about here, the Germans led 48-24 at half-time and therefore defeated Montenegro… in the last seconds. Eh ? Yes Yes. Kendrick Perry showed his attachment to the fatherland by releasing ten consecutive pawns on the German defense, Germans who took a nap in the middle of the match, and on arrival the Mercedes-Benz Arena which passed to an anti- athlete of a possible feat. Hey, we’ll come back to the unsportsmanlike faults, but in any case for Germany it’s ok and it will be a bit harder in the quarters against the winner of Greece – Czech Republic.
We pass the second? Go on. In the last game of the day, the third we are talking about, Lithuanians and Spaniards met to offer us total basketball for… 45 minutes, five more than normal, and if the Lithuanians recited their ranges for about 37 minutes, bizarre rotations (underused Valanciunas, for example) and poorly controlled money time (once again!) ultimately cost the Baltics the match. But let’s give back to Caesar what belongs to him, in this case to these Spaniards who definitely never die, for whom Willie Hernangomez and the redhead Diaz did a huge job today, for whom Lorenzo Brown was phenomenal and even more so in the final minutes of the match. We might as well say it right away, in 300 years the Roja will still be there to piss everyone off, to cause a stir and to offer one of the cleanest sneakers in the world.
Hey, haven’t we forgotten one? You know, the reigning Olympic finalist team. FRANCE ladies and gentlemen, France which has offered us a once again unique scenario and we are going to do it very quickly by inviting you to consult the links above. To make it short? A big start to the game, a horrifying third quarter, an end to the match during which everything was folded, everything was screwed up… before the unthinkable happened, before EDF literally came back from the past. CQFR? That the Blues are qualified for the quarters, quarters which sends them to play the winner of Serbia – Italy on Wednesday. What were we saying again? Ah yes, what a day, WHAT A DAY.
The bracket
Tomorrow’s program
- 12h : Ukraine – Poland
- 14h45 : Finland – Croatia
- 18:00 Serbia – Italy
- 20h45 : Greece – Czech Republic