More Sport The Belgian Cats had today during the draw for the group stage of the european CHAMPIONSHIP of basketball in Serbia and Latvia (27 June-7 July 2019) a tough group D with host country Serbia, Russia and belarus are presented. The draw looks difficult, but in the rounds of the group stage is the way to the top six, good for a ticket for the pre-olympic qualifying tournament at Tokyo 2020, open.
“It is a tough group”, opened coach Philip Mestdagh. “But I had pre-three wishes: a viable group stage, against a not-to-heavy group would arrive at any barrages and allowed to play in Serbia at fault to avoid. The last two conditions are fulfilled. So I am not dissatisfied.”
The poulewinnaar places himself directly for the quarter-finals of the european CHAMPIONSHIPS, while numbers two and three barrages play against the respectively numbers three and two from another group (group C, for the Cats, ed.). That group C looks somewhat feasible, with Hungary, Turkey, Italy and Slovenia as opponents. “That’s four countries where we have no excuses against,” said Mestdagh.
“We meet in the group stages, first Russia, undefeated in the qualifications and drawing on a great generations of players. Then we meet belarus with top riders as Snystsina and Verameyenka, but also a narrow core. And finally, after a day of rest, we play against Serbia, perhaps for the first place in the group. That would be interesting. Then follows, possibly after a new day of rest – a barragewedstrijd. Two days later, the quarterfinals finished. That quarter-final is without doubt a tough one, but also in the case of loss, we will keep a chance on the top 6, which is our goal.”
