In Nicosia against Cyprus, Switzerland conceded its second defeat in the first preliminary round of Euro 2025. Ilias Papatheodorou’s players lost 71-63.
Beaten in Austria last November, Switzerland remains in a very good position despite this failure. She will qualify for the second phase if she wins this Sunday in Dublin against Ireland.
Faced with a team automatically qualified as one of the four organizing countries of this Euro 2025, the Swiss let go in a 3rd quarter lost on the improbable score of 11-6. Despite its almost overwhelming superiority in rebounding – 42 against 28 -, Switzerland stammered its basketball with 12 balls stolen by the Cypriots and 17 turnovers. At 3 points, the success was, moreover, not there with a 7 out of 29.
The most used player with a presence of 34’45” on the floor, Jonathan Kazadi (17 points) could have allowed his team to come back at the end of the game if he had been able to succeed in one of the 2 winning shots he armed in the money time when the score was only 67-61. The Bernese leader hopes to find his hand on Sunday.
ats/alt