Our team fell into a very difficult group
On Friday, September 2, the Ukrainian team starts at the European Basketball Championship. At 15:15 our team will meet with the UK team. Sport Arena presents a short guide to the European championship.
Where will the tournament take place
The 41st EuroBasket in history will be held in four countries – Georgia, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic, the final round – in Germany.
The tournament was originally supposed to take place last year, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was postponed to 2022.
What is the tournament format
The 24 teams that have qualified for the EuroBasket finals will be divided into four groups of six teams each. Based on the results of the round-robin tournament, the four best teams from each group will advance to the playoffs. There, the teams will start the fight from the 1/8 finals, and one match will be played at each stage. The following pairs will be in the 1/8 finals: B2 – A3, C1 – D4, A1 – B4, D2 – C3, B1 – A4, C2 – D3, A2 – B3, D1 – C4. The playoff stage starts on September 10th.
Four teams – Georgia, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic – made it to the final round of EuroBasket 2022 as hosts. The rest – made their way through the qualifications.
How Ukraine played in qualifying
The Blue-Yellows in the selection for EuroBasket 2022 started from the fourth stage of qualification. The Ukrainians were in the same group with Slovenia (the current European champion), Hungary and Austria.
Our team beat the Austrians twice, and also exchanged victories with the Slovenes and the Hungarians. As a result, having scored 10 points in six matches, the blue-yellows took first place in the group, ahead of Slovenia and Hungary in additional indicators. By the way, Slovenians and Hungarians will also play at EuroBasket 2022.
EuroBasket 2022 groups list
- Group A (Georgia): Belgium, Georgia, Turkey, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Spain.
- Group B (Germany): Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Hungary, Slovenia, Lithuania.
- Group C (Italy): Italy, Great Britain, Greece, Croatia, Estonia, UKRAINE.
- Group D (Czech Republic): Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, Czech Republic, Finland, Israel.
How Ukraine played at the European Championships
For the blue-yellows, the upcoming tournament is the ninth in history. At the same time, since 2011, our team has not missed a single EuroBasket. Ukraine failed to overcome the qualifying tournament five times, the last one was before the 2009 European Championship.
The best result of the Blue-Yellows at EuroBasket is the sixth place in 2013 in Slovenia. Then in the first round Ukraine defeated Belgium, Germany, Israel, Great Britain, losing to France. In the second, our team lost to Latvia and Lithuania, having defeated Serbia, and due to additional indicators reached the quarterfinals. There, the blue-yellows lost to Croatia, in the mini-tournament for fifth-sixth places they defeated Italy and lost to Slovenia.
It is noteworthy that neither before nor after EuroBasket 2013 did Ukraine finish in the top ten at the tournament. And at the last tournament for herself – in 2017 – she was 16th.
Results of the Ukrainian national team at EuroBasket
- 1997-13
- 2001-14
- 2003-14
- 2005-16
- 2011 – 17-20
- 2013-6
- 2015-22
- 2017-16
What you need to know about Ukraine’s rivals at EuroBasket 2022
As is often the case in such tournaments, there are three clear favorites in the blue-and-yellow group – Italy, Greece and Croatia – and three teams that will fight for a fourth spot in the playoffs. Of course, anything can happen, but the prelaunch layouts seem to be just that.
Italy is a two-time European champion. True, the last time the Italians were among the winners of the EuroBasket was in 2003, winning bronze, and in the last two tournaments they finished in sixth position. The main star of the current Italian national team is Nico Mannion from Golden State. But Nicolo Melli can easily take on the role of leader.
Croatia, which won bronze twice – in 1993 and 1995 – is always among the favorites, but rarely achieves great success: the checkered ones are ninth and tenth in the last two tournaments. Possessing a strong line-up, Bogdanovich, Khezonya, Zubac, Saric, Jalyn Smith are now on the team’s roster, the Croats can shoot, or they can traditionally perform below their capabilities.
The Greek national team has five medals at the European Championships, two of which are gold. At the last two EuroBaskets, the Greeks finished fifth and eighth, in the selection for the current one they took second place, losing the first line to Bosnia and Herzegovina. But this time, one of the best European coaches, Dimitris Itoudis, will lead the Greek national team, and one of the best basketball players in the world, Giannis Antetokounmpo, will be in it.
The Estonian national team cannot boast of great achievements in the European arena. And in the selection, the Balts took third place in their group, two points behind Italy and disqualified Russia, and only ahead of North Macedonia in additional indicators. But now Estonia has Mike Kalev-Kotsar, who is able to drag an episode or a game at the right time. Plus, in general, the young team is ready to surprise.
Team Great Britain is on its way to its fourth European Championship. At the last, in 2017, the British took the last place in their group, losing all five matches, and 22nd in the overall standings. But in the EuroBasket 2022 qualifier, Great Britain finished second in its group at the fourth stage, scoring the same number of points with France, and ahead of the teams of Montenegro and Germany.
Schedule of matches of the national team of Ukraine
- 2 September. Ukraine – Great Britain. 15:15
- September 3rd. Estonia – Ukraine. 18:00
- September 5. Ukraine – Italy. 22:00
- 6 September. Greece – Ukraine. 18:00
- 8 September. Croatia – Ukraine. 15:15
Who else to watch at EuroBasket 2022
This time the tournament will feature a whole scattering of basketball stars. We talked about Antetokoumbo above. Nikola Jokic (Serbia), Luka Doncic (Slovenia), Furkan Korkmaz (Turkey) will perform at the EuroBasket. And in general, now European basketball is rich in talents, and every player and every team can shoot at any moment.
What to talk about, even if Finland, which was previously considered “non-basketball”, has an NBA representative, Lauri Markannen, and the national team of this country was the first European team to win a ticket to EuroBasket 2022.
Where to watch EuroBasket 2022
In Ukraine, all matches of the national team of the country will be shown live by the Xsport TV channel.
Source: Sportarena
