The last games of the group stage are over and the first week of this EuroBasket has therefore given its verdict. Gentlemen, if you want to go for the gold medal, you know what you have to do, and for France, for example, you will have to beat, logically, Turkey, Serbia, Slovenia and Spain or Greece. Can we make it more complicated? No.
Sixty matches played in eight days, some monstrous individual performances (Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Franz Wagner…), nations that are there (Greece, Serbia…) but also a pinch of magic (Belgium against Spain for example) and surprise guests at the table of superstars (Aleksandar Vezenkov, Alperen Sengun, Simone Fontecchio, TERRY TARPEY…). Eight days in apnea but now we are getting into the hard part with the final bracket all hot out of the oven. Four round of 16 on Saturday, four on Sunday, the quarter-finals on Tuesday and Wednesday, the semi-finals on Friday and a firework without Katy Perry on Sunday in eight. The board ? It’s all hot and beautiful, aim instead:
It’s not a bracket, it’s a path strewn with thorns and squatted by hyenas ready to skin you, especially for a French team which will have to be extraordinary from Saturday to fulfill its medal objective. Alperen Sengun, Cedi Osman and Furkan Korkmaz in the round of 16, Nikola Jokic and Vasilije Micic in the quarters, Luka Relou in the semis and a potential final against Giannis Antetokounmpo or Rudy Fernandezobviously we will first try to hit Turkey in two days but admit that the potential course gives sweats in the back.
All the favorites are there, we will be entitled to huge shocks this weekend (Croatia – Serbia, Spain – Lithuania, France – Turkey) and it is quite simply the must of European basketball, almost worldwide that we are going to be able to live from this Saturday at 12 noon. You are ready ? There’s interest.