The national team of Ukraine will have an important duel with Iceland on November 14
Basketball head coach Ukrainian national team Ainars Bagatskis commented on the victory over the Netherlands in the match of the second round of qualification World Cup 2023.
“As you know, if we compare the European Championship or previous qualifying matches for the 2023 World Cup, we have changed the composition, we had a lot of new players, some of whom were not included in the final EuroBasket application at the last moment. For the past four days, we have not so much talked about preparation as we have built basketball based on what we played in defense or attack.
Much more important was the atmosphere in the team, energy, aggressiveness. This was probably the main reason for our good start to the game. It’s important that in the first quarter we hit all the open shots.”
“Of course, we are playing for the people who are now fighting for Ukraine and in Ukraine, who are fighting for the independence and freedom of the country. I hope we make our minimal contribution with our victories. I know that many people there look at our basketball team.”
“Usually more important today, today’s game. What will be in three days will be in three days. We lost to Iceland on the road. Then we had a lot of losses, not scored free throws. 50% of success in basketball is your decisions. And in this game we had terrible decisions. We will forget that game and focus on the second match. We will play in the familiar arena in Riga, which has become our second home.”
Ukraine confidently beat the Netherlands (96:77) and took fourth place in Group L. Let us remind you that three teams will advance to the next round of qualification for the 2023 World Cup.
The team of Bagatskis will play its next duel on November 14 in Riga with the Icelandic team, which occupies the third place in the group. In the previous match, the Ukrainians lost to the Icelanders in overtime.
Source: Sportarena
