Eurobasket 2025, with Hungary painless defeat for Italy

Eurobasket 2025, with Hungary painless defeat for Italy'Italy

The convinced and affectionate applause of the 7,000 people at PalaCalafiore greeted the Azzurri, who came out defeated by Hungary (67-71) in the last round of the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers: a painless knockout for coach Pozzecco’s team, which after the external blow in Istanbul had already secured the first place in Group B. Despite the misstep, the Reggio Emilia public wanted to thank the National Team for its commitment and for these three days spent in Calabria among a thousand side events.

The top scorer for Italy’was Nicola Akele with 17 points, also in double figures were Matteo Spagnolo (14), Giordano Bortolani (13) and Momo Diouf (11). In the’other game of the group, Iceland overcame Turkey 83-71 thus gaining access to the’European despite Hungary’s success.

First official presence with the Senior for Saliou Niang and Sasha Grant, thus the number of Pozzecco management rookies rises to 12.

EuroBasket 2025: the qualified teams
The’last round of Qualifiers has defined the grid of 24 participants in EuroBasket 2025: in addition to the four host nations Latvia, Poland, Finland and Cyprus, Slovenia, Israel, Portugal, Italy, Turkey, Belgium, Spain, France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Great Britain, Czechia, Serbia, Georgia, Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, Montenegro, Sweden and Iceland will take part in the continental review.

Coach Pozzecco’s comment after the game: “There are many reasons to be proud and to speak well of this national team. We closed the qualification talk early and last Thursday by winning in Istanbul we secured the first place in the round. Losing is never a pleasure, especially in front of such a warm and affectionate crowd: I am especially sorry for the boys, they were very sorry at the end of the game, but I am very proud of them and what they have done in these Qualifiers and in this window. I received a lot of good news from such a young group, there are the prerequisites to do well at the’European”.

The words of Matteo Spagnolo: “I want to thank on behalf of the whole team the cityà of Reggio Calabria, which in these days has surrounded us with love and attention. We wanted to repay them with a victory and we are sorry we did not succeed, the game seemed to be in our hands but then we made a couple of mistakes and they were good at coming back at the most difficult moment”.

Pozzecco chooses Pajola, Spagnolo, Procida, Severini and Diouf for the starting five but unlike what we saw in Istanbul in the beginning the Azzurri’s powders turned out to be unusually wet: Severini’s triple è the only basket of ours in the first five minutes (3-7) but after Poz’s timeout Italy found offensive fluidity and high percentage solutions. Diouf in the low post and then Akele from the’arc shake the PalaCalafiore for the first lead (10-9).
At the start of the second quarter, two consecutive triples by Vojvoda and Pongo push the Magyars away again (13-19) but Italy’s green and blue line sews up patiently and then tears it up with Willy Caruso’s blaze, 4 points closed by the dunk on the counterattack (25-21). Hungary relies again on Vojvoda’s accuracy from the arc, è he breaks the 12-2 partial and inspires the 9-0 guest counter-partial. At the’long intermission it goes 27-32.

The game struggles to take off in the opening of the third period, then comes a shock: the Azzurri are good at sticking to a game in which the percentages from the’arc do not smile at us, with patience and courage is born in our half court the +6 (39-33) of the 25’first;, liberating the triple from the’corner of Bortolani that inflames the 7,000 of PalaCalafiore. From’Iceland for Hungary no good news came, and for coach Okorn’s team to make matters worse came Akele’s triple for the first double-digit lead (46-36).
On the verge of collapsing, in the first half of the last quarter Hungary finds new life from Vojvoda’s triples and with Goloman’s dunk, within a minute the Magyars are back ahead with Perl and Vojvoda himself (53-56, -11 the break). It’ s by Keller the 55-62 half-break, Somogyi’s steal certifies the Azzurro black-out (55-64 at 37′) and in the final, after Diouf’s three-point play that deludes the Reggio Emilia audience, it’s Somogyi and Perl to close the account for Hungary. Victory that forò for the Magyars is not worth the qualification.

TABLE
Italy-Hungary 67-71 (10-13, 17-19, 21-10, 17-29)
Italy: Sarr 2 (1/3, 0/1), Spagnolo 14 (4/9, 0/1), Procida (0/3, 0/1), Niang,Basile (0/1 from three), Bortolani 13 (1/5, 3/6), Caruso 4 (2/2), Diouf 11 (4/10), Severini 3 (1/4 from three), Grant ne, Akele 17 (3/3, 3/5), Pajola 3 (0/1, 1/3). All. Pozzecco.
Hungary: Pongo 6 (1/1, 1/2), Pallai ne, Keller 12 (5/7), Mocsan ne, Vojvoda 16 (3/5, 3/6), Varadi 3 (1/5 from three), Goloman 5 (1/4, 1/1), Lukacs, Perl 20 (7/16, 1/2), Somogyi 4 (2/3), Reuvers 5 (2/4, 0/4). All. Okorn.
Referees: Marius Ciulin (Romania), Josip Jurcevic (Croatia), Ilias Kounelles (Cyprus)
Spectators: 7000 (Sold-out)
Shooting from two Ita 15/36, Ung 21/41; Shooting from three Ita 8/22, Ung 7/20; Free throws Ita 13/13, Ung 8/12; Rebounds Ita 26, Ung 42; Assists Ita 19 (Spanish 5), Ung 17. Fouls: Ita 19, Ung 22
Fouls given out 5 fouls: none
Technical foul to Pozzecco at 18′