Eurobasket Women, Andrea Capobianco exposes himself after qualifying for the quarters
Archived its second win in as many games, with the 77-66 success against Serbia coming twenty-four’hours after beating Serbia 70-61, the Italian women’s national basketball team is already certain to advance to the quarterfinals, although the last game of the round against Lithuania is a real playoff to decree the first and second place finishers.
“It was a tough match, with great intensity in the first two quarters – said Andrea Capobianco, coach of the Azzurre, speaking about the second match played at PalaDozza in Bologna -. In the second half we had some problems handling Slovenia’s vehement comeback but we were good in the last possessions, returning to give the ball inside with continuity to open their defense”.
“Getting into the top eight of the European Championship also generates some emotion and that can sometimes create problems. The strength of this group is knowing how to make themselves available to each other especially in difficult times. Now our journey begins” added Capobianco, who confirmed that he does not want to stop at the’minimum goal of these Europeans.
The eight national teams qualified for the knockout stage will move to Piraeus, the Athens-area port municipality, for matches to be played between June 24 and 29 at the Peace and Friendship Stadium, the facility that usually hosts Olympiacos matches. Italy, in fact, has already improved on its ninth-place finish in the last two editions of Eurobasket Women: the goal is to raise the bar even higher in the decisive games of the tournament.
