Our team got into a very difficult group.
Ukrainian National Basketball Team, photo – fbu.ua
On Friday, September 2, the Ukrainian national team will start at the European Basketball Championship. At 15:15, our team will meet the UK national team. Sport Arena presents a short guide to the European Championship.
Read also: Mykhailiuk, Len and Pustovoy included in the final roster of the Ukrainian national team for EuroBasket 2022
Where will the tournament take place?
The 41st EuroBasket in history will be held in four countries – Georgia, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic, with the final round in Germany.
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The tournament was originally scheduled to take place last year, but due to the coronavirus pandemic it was postponed to 2022.
What is the format of the tournament?
The 24 teams that reached the EuroBasket finals will be divided into four groups, with six teams in 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 begin their competition in the 1/8 finals, with one match played at each stage. The 1/8 finals will feature the following pairs: B2 – A3, C1 – D4, A1 – B4, D2 – C3, B1 – A4, C2 – D3, A2 – B3, D1 – C4. The playoffs will start on September 10.
Four teams – Georgia, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic – entered the final round of EuroBasket 2022 as hosts. The rest made it through the qualification.
How Ukraine played in the qualification
The blue-yellows started their EuroBasket 2022 qualifiers from the fourth stage of the qualification. The Ukrainians were in the same group with Slovenia (the current European champion), Hungary and Austria.
Ukrainian National Basketball Team, photo — https://fbu.ua/
Our team beat the Austrians twice, and also exchanged victories with the Slovenians and 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 on additional indicators. By the way, the Slovenians and Hungarians will also play in EuroBasket 2022.
EuroBasket 2022 group composition
- 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 has failed to overcome the qualifying tournament five times, the last one being for the 2009 European Championship.
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The blue-yellows' best result at EuroBasket was sixth place in 2013 in Slovenia. Then, in the first round, Ukraine defeated Belgium, Germany, Israel, and Great Britain, losing to France. In the second, our team lost to Latvia and Lithuania, winning against Serbia, and advanced to the quarterfinals due to additional indicators. There, the blue-yellows lost to Croatia, and in the mini-tournament for fifth-sixth place, they defeated Italy and lost to Slovenia.
It is noteworthy that neither before nor after EuroBasket 2013 did Ukraine finish in the tournament in the top ten. And at its last tournament – in 2017 – it 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 opponents at EuroBasket 2022
As is often the case at such tournaments, the blue-yellow group has three obvious favourites – Italy, Greece and Croatia – and three teams that will fight for the fourth playoff spot. Of course, anything can happen, but this is how the pre-start layout looks.
Italy is a two-time European champion. However, the last time the Italians were among the winners of Eurobasket was in 2003, winning bronze, and they finished sixth in the last two tournaments. The main star of the current Italian team is Nico Mannion from Golden State. But the role of leader can easily be taken on by Nicolo Melli.
Croatia, which has won bronze twice – in 1993 and 1995 – is always among the favourites, but rarely achieves great success: in the checkered – ninth and tenth places in the last two tournaments. With a strong line-up, the team currently has Bogdanovic, Hezonja, Zubac, Saric, Jalin Smith in the application, the Croatians can either shine or 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, and in the selection for the current one, they took second place, losing first place 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 on its roster.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Getty Images
The Estonian national team cannot boast of any great achievements on the European stage. And in the selection, the Baltics took third place in their group, two points behind Italy and the disqualified Russia, and only ahead of North Macedonia on additional indicators. But now Estonia has Mike Kalev-Kotsar, who is capable of saving an episode or a game at the right moment. Plus, the young team is generally ready to spring a surprise.
Team Great Britain is going to its fourth European Championship. At the last one, in 2017, the British finished bottom of their group, losing all five matches, and 22nd overall. But in the EuroBasket 2022 qualifiers, Great Britain finished second in their group at the fourth stage, tied with France, and ahead of Montenegro and Germany.
Schedule of matches of the Ukrainian national team
- September 2. Ukraine – Great Britain. 15:15
- September 3. Estonia – Ukraine. 18:00
- September 5. Ukraine – Italy. 22:00
- September 6. Greece – Ukraine. 18:00
- September 8. 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 Antetokounmpo above. Nikola Jokic (Serbia), Luka Doncic (Slovenia), and Furkan Korkmaz (Turkey) will perform at Eurobasket. And in general, European basketball is now rich in talent, and any player and any team can make a splash at any moment.
Luka Doncic, Getty Images
What can we say if even Finland, which was previously considered “non-basketball”, has an NBA representative on its roster – 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 on the Xsport TV channel.