To qualify for the EuroBasket finals, the Ukrainian national team must take one of the first three places in the group
Mentor Ukrainian men’s team in basketball Vitaly Stepanovsky commented on the upcoming matches national team in qualification EuroBasket 2025 with Slovenia And Portugal.
“The impressions are very good, I am grateful to all the guys who joined the ranks of the national team. Everyone is working with double energy and I am glad that the guys who arrived are in good physical condition. Now we are working on repeating our rules of the game in defense and attack. We will watch the video and continue to prepare for Slovenia.”
“It helps that most of the guys on this roster were on the team in the summer. It doesn’t take them that long to remember what we did. I want to add more new information, and the guys are doing a good job. Of course it’s difficult, because there’s a lot of information, but everything will be fine.”
“We have to play aggressive defense. The Slovenians have a lot of shooters and, above all, with Prepelic and Blazic we have to be very careful. It is important to get a feel for the game and make all attacks against them more difficult. The Slovenians also have a very experienced player, Mike Toby. He may not get much time at Red Star, but in the national team he will play 100% and he is also a good shooter.”
“We have to defend very well against them in the pick-and-roll and against players without the ball. Therefore, it is very important to defend yourself and play fast basketball on your part. We need to play to our strengths, play pick-and-roll and show 101% commitment.”
The Ukrainian national basketball team in Riga began preparations for the qualifying matches for the 2025 European Championship. The coaching staff did not call up the injured Vladimir Konev, Konstantin Anikienko and Dmitry Skapintsev.
Due to difficulties with acclimatization, Vladimir Gerun, who competes in the Japanese Championship, was not included in the team. 20-year-old center Bogdan Brynyuk, who plays for the Black Sea in Bulgaria, received his debut call to the national team.
Vitaly Stepanovsky’s team will open the qualifying tournament with a match against Slovenia on February 22. The blue-and-yellows will then play Portugal on February 25th. Nominally, the “home” match for Ukraine will take place in Riga. The third opponent of the Ukrainians in Group A is Israel.
European Championship qualification will take place during three windows: 19-27 February 2024, 18-26 November 2024 and 17-25 February 2025. Each team will play two games in each window. To qualify for the EuroBasket finals, the Ukrainian national team must take one of the first three places in the group.
Source: Sportarena
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