What is your state of mind before this semi-final against Belgium? Valériane Vukosavljevic: It’s a new match before us. We are where we wanted to be, but we also know that it is not our objective, it is part of the stages that we must pass and win. It’s up to us to play a complete match to get this place in the final.
What did you think of the Belgians’ run and the performance of insider Emma Meesseman? Personally, I only saw them in the quarter-finals. They play good basketball, with talented players. I think Serbia didn’t play the game they hoped to, and once the first wave passed, the Belgians settled into comfort. It’s up to us to show our weapons and offer them something else. Emma, I think right now she’s the best player in Europe. She does Emma in this competition, we know she will be present, she wants to lead her country to a final. We also have players who will be able to answer her so that she does not offer her best basketball. They have several players who are important in their collective, but we know what we will have to do to outsmart them, in any case that they are not as efficient as at the start of the competition.
What kind of match do you expect in this semi-final, against Belgian players that you know well? It’s a semi-final, at the end of the forty minutes or maybe a little bit more, there will be more than one. It will be them or us. They will do everything possible to reach this final. We will continue to rely on what we have done since the beginning, namely a solid defense, trying to run and cross the field quickly. It will be a surprise to no one. There will be details, adjustments and things to do a little differently than in other matches. We have a team in front of us that is playing basketball well at the moment. Our goal is still to win matches, no matter how. Beautiful basketball or not beautiful basketball, I don’t really care.
