Italy Women’s Basketball: Historic Match & 30-Year High

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Three of the four teams arrived at the semifinals of the women’s European basketball Europeans were already far among the main favorites before the start of the tournament, namely Belgium, France and Spain. The fourth semifinalist, on the other hand, is surprisingly Italy: it was thirty years (from the European Championships in the Czech Republic of 1995) that the national team did not arrive among the top four in Europe and was difficult to prediction that it could in this edition of the tournament, despite the most visible improvements in the last period.

In the semifinal Italy plays against Belgium, that is, the team that won the latest edition of the European Championships two years ago: it is played at 19:30 at Pireo, near Athens, and the game is broadcast in clear on Rai 2 and Rai Sport. The other semifinal is played in the same place two hours earlier and always there will also be the final, Sunday 29 June at 19:30.

Since Italy has trained by Andrea Capobianco and his staff, the team has changed a lot. Next to players considered generational talents, such as Cecilia Zandalasini (29 years old) and Matilde Villa (20, which in this European Championship is not playing for an injury), others have matured that have gradually been more and more capable of taking more responsibilities on the field when the team needed it. Until recently, most of the responsibilities was very unbalanced on Zandalasini, the most talented player and with the highest level experience.

It is clear even just looking at the scores of the games played so far from Italy in these Europeans: against Serbia, Slovenia and Lithuania in the groups, and against Turkey in the quarterfinals. In each game the players who have scored at least 10 points, apart from Zandalasini who has always overcome them, were different: Jasmine Keys, Lorela Cubaj, Costanza Verona, Francesca Pasa, Stefania Trimboli and Olbis Futo Andrè. The fact that multiple players point so many points in several games is not the norm in a sport such as basketball, in which two or three more important players usually emerge by team that are divided most of the points marked together.

Next to these players there are others who have never reached the double figure but that have marked decisive points in the most delicate moments of the games: Mariella Santucci, Martina Fassina, Francesca Pan, Sara Madera. This is also not obvious: it is remarkable, that is, that so many players who enter the field from the bench are immediately decisive, and it is a fact that testifies to the involvement of the whole team in the game proposed by the coach.

From left: Olbis Futo Andrè, Stefania Trimboli, Francesca Pasa and Jasmine Keys off the pitch (Elena Vizzoca/Sopa Images Via Zuma Press Wire)

Belgium is favored in the semifinal: it is a team that has been competing at the highest levels for years and in which above all Emma Meesseman plays, 32 years old very talented and expert, and probably the most difficult basketball player to contain in the “removal” shot, that is, the shot that is suspended (therefore while jumping) moving backwards for get away from the opponent’s marking.

France and Spain would also have been favored against Italy. Like Belgium, they are teams that have a lot of experience in the semifinals and finals of important tournaments, and capable of making the most of a few minutes of confusion of the opponents such as those had from Italy a little in all the games so far.

Against Turkey, the moment of flaging has risked being decisive because it has occurred in the last seconds of the regulatory times: Italy has lost the ball twice superficially when it was ahead of only two points and it would have been enough to maintain possession to win. It was reassembled with a basket on the siren, that is, at the last second (when there is just a siren that sounds), and the game went to extra time, where she then managed to win (76-74) especially thanks to three consecutive baskets of Lorela Cubaj.

Lorela Cubaj E Cecilia Zandaisali (EP/Georgia Outhoru)

To be competitive even against the best teams of the tournament, Italy must avoid above all errors of this kind, which most concern the mental aspect than the tactic. After four games, in fact, it was understood that the strength of the national team is team game, both in attack and in defense, which has also made it possible to beat a team like Turkey, on favored paper. Given the very aggressive defense of the opponents on Zandalasini, who at least in the first part of the game failed to score many points, Italy has reorganized: Lorela Cubaj, Costanza Verona and above all Jasmine Keys (among the best shooters of three points in Europe) were the most influential players in attack. Then it was Zandalasini (who still made 14 points) who scored the decisive basket for the final victory.

For the national team, having achieved the semifinal is already a historical result, the importance of which goes beyond the sporting objectives, any trophies won and the prize pools that earn: it is a legitimacy of the existence of the category, which in Italy is still considered secondary and less important Of the male one, in a way that in recent years has questioned the career of several tall baskets. Two seasons ago the women’s team of Virtus Bologna, one of the most prestigious Italian teams (in the male it has just won the championship), it was suddenly dismantled Almost without any comment from the company and in the disinterest of almost all of the sports media (especially the mainstream).

Three basketball players played in that team, of which the names are very well known, also thanks to these Europeans: Cecilia Zandalasini, Francesca Pasa and Olbis Futo Andrè. Two years ago they remained unemployed without any notice or protection, today they are among the strongest players in Europe.