The decisive game window of selection for the 2023 World Cup will be held in February
Basketball forward Ukrainian national team Pavel Krutous shared his impressions of the second match against Iceland in the 2023 World Cup qualification.
“First of all, I am very grateful to our team, our fans and everyone who participated in this window. It was successful for us, because we won two victories. It was a difficult game against Iceland, but the most important thing is that we won it. Every victory for Ukraine now is an event. We understand what awaits us in the next window. We have chances of reaching the World Cup, but they are not great.”
“We had a low percentage of field goals, because of which we could not turn the game – it was equal. But Sasha Lipovy and I hit our three-pointers at the end of the game and made the difference. We played a little more aggressively on defense and that was the main reason for our breakthrough.”
Iceland is a team that is difficult for us to play against. They run, they play randomly. In Iceland, we couldn’t feel our game, there were a lot of hasty shots, and then they scored five three-pointers in a row. In Riga we were more lucky at the end of the game and won it.
The matches against Spain and Iceland, which we lost, were very important. These were the most important matches in all windows. We know that there is a chance, but it is minimal. We will tune in to the maximum. We have something to prove to ourselves, to the whole of Ukraine. We must not give up in any case and just win every game to have a good mood. Perhaps this will be some kind of support for our Armed Forces, because I know that many guys there follow basketball, football and other sports. Therefore, in particular, we do all this for them.”
The Ukrainian national team beat Iceland in the 2023 World Cup qualification (79:72). The Ukrainians remained in fourth place, but now they are one point behind the Icelanders, who are in third. Recall that three teams will qualify for the next round of selection for the 2023 World Cup.
The next qualifying match will take place in February. The national team of Ukraine on the road will play with Italy. In August, the wards of Bagatskis lost to the Appeninians in the selection of the 2023 World Cup. Later, the blue-yellows managed to beat Italy already in the framework of EuroBasket 2022.
Source: Sportarena
