Chances are maintained but not improved / Day

Enthusiastic about the victory over Croatia, the leadership of the Latvian women’s basketball team left the overall situation behind the scenes in the European Championship qualification tournament. The success of 83:69 against the Croats allowed the team led by Mārtiņš Gulbis to maintain the chances of reaching the road to France or Spain, but in the tournament against weakened direct competitors in their field they did not significantly improve their position in achieving the goal.

“We looked good – aggressive, shameless. I finally saw a lot of confidence in what we were doing,” was coach Gulbis, outwardly pleased with the victory over Croatia, who mentioned a loss of concentration in the second quarter when a significant 27-point lead was missed and disappeared a bit. the possibility of winning with the necessary advantage of at least 19 points to gain an advantage in the sum of two games, however, very cleverly “jumped” from the question of journalists about the chances to win a ticket to the European Championship final in the last two games. “We have to win two victories, and we have to beat Germany by at least a seven-point advantage. Let’s start with the fact that we want everything in the world to calm down. So that the fans can come to the games, enjoy such success.”

After the unsuccessful start of the qualification cycle, when Croatia lost 18 points here in Riga, the Latvian Basketball Union did everything possible for the Latvian national team to take convincing steps towards the final tournament this month. The confusion with the previously planned matches against direct competitors Germany and Croatia was brought to Riga, moreover, the almost best team was gathered, while the guests had to do without several leaders. The rising European basketball star Satu Sabali did not help Germany in the Riga “bubble”, but three of the leaders did not help Croatia for various reasons. “We played the home game away without a half team, while Latvia was full. We showed that we can play very well even without the missing players,” the head coach of the Croatian national team Stipe Braličs aptly described the situation.

The qualifying tournament is scheduled to end in February, when Latvia originally plans to host Northern Macedonia and Germany. The winners of the group will qualify for the final tournament, as well as five of the nine runners-up.