After a light aperitif between Poland and Ukraine, Berlin began to heat up at 2:45 p.m. with this clash between Croatia and Finland. Two solid teams, Croatian better equipped on paper, but for a few years Finland has proven that it can mingle with the European elite.
Croatia showed up at the Euros this year with their usual dose of NBAers (Ivica Zubac, Dario Saric, Bojan Bogdanovic), with a few FIBA basketball players, two or three players capable of making the difference depending on their mood of play. (the GOAT Mario Hezonja, Jaleen Smith) and the little youth asset that is going well (Matkovic). However, talent is replaced once more and once more by this versatility in the effort, in the basketball IQ during high times, a “detail” which means that these Crocro have struggled for a thousand years to extract themselves from the continental soft belly. On this Euro? A group stage managed as we imagined, with victories once morest Estonia and Great Britain, a defeat once morest Greece and Italy, then this hard-won win on the last evening of the group matches once morest amazing Ukrainians. Not really guarantees therefore, especially since snipers from the North are facing them, capable of anything and its opposite in 40 minutes of basketball.
Finland then. Finland that French basketball knows only too well, Finland and its conductor Koponen, Finland and its sniper Sasu Salin, Finland, the only European nation already qualified for the 2023 World Cup. Finland obviously driven by its leader Lauri Markkanen, impeccable since the start of the competition and among the dominant superstars of this Euro. Poland, Czech Republic and Holland were washed in chickens, Israel it failed, and in the end we find the Lapps where we imagined them, among the Top 16 of European basketball. Enough to thrill a tad of Croats who shouldn’t feel they’ve arrived before the hour, otherwise they’ll get a shower of blond meteorites on their face, we’ve warned you.
The rosters
Croatia: Bojan Bogdanovic, Lovro Gnjidic, Mario Hezonja, Karlo Matkovic, Dominik Mavra, Toni Perkovic, Roko Prkacin, Ivan Ramljak, Dario Saric, Krunoslav Simon, Jaleen Smith, Ivica Zubac
Finland: Shawn Huff, Mikael Jantunen, Henri Kantonen, Petteri Koponen, Miro Little, Alexander Madsen, Lauri Markkanen, Edon Maxhuni, Topias Palmi, Sasu Salin, Ilari Seppala, Elias Valtonen
The journey of the two teams
- Croatia – Greece : 85-89
- Croatia – Great Britain: 86-65
- Croatia – Estonia: 73-70
- Croatia – Italy : 76-81
- Croatia – Ukraine : 90-85
- Finland – Israel : 87-89
- Finland – Poland: 89-59
- Finland – Serbia : 70-100
- Finland – Czech Republic: 98-88
- Finland – Netherlands: 88-67
Perhaps one of the most uncertain matches of these round of 16, as we know the ability of each other to thwart the predictions, in one direction or the other. The winner? Direction Spain in quarters. Come on, go Berlin, 2:45 p.m., it looks very nice.
