Women’s Eurobasket qualifiers, challenging round for Italy: Andrea Capobianco doesn’t hide
Slovenia, Latvia and Austria: these are the three national teams that will contend with Italy for one of the spots available for the final phase of Eurobasket Women 2027, the 41st edition of the continental tournament that in 2025 saw the Azzurre take a splendid third place, surrendering only to Belgium in the semifinals by only two points before beating France in the bronze medal match. The top two in the group will pass: the other two will instead have to watch the continental review from home.
“After what was called the ’round of death’ by FIBA last summer in Bologna, we got a solid, tough, high-level group in these qualifiers as well,” commented the women’s national team’s head coach Andrea Capobianco. There are top teams in their own brackets, we are talking about national teams that have tradition, high-level naturalized athletes and are coached well.”
“We as usual, and I’ve been saying this since the day I started coaching these extraordinary girls, we have to try to play at the top of our level and then see how it turns out. This is our commitment, aware that we will have to face a round where the word respect will be fundamental because we will meet very tough teams,” concluded Capobianco, who with Italbasket women was the protagonist of the historic qualification to the World Cup, where Italy returns after 32 years.
To get to the final stage of the European Championships, which will be played in Belgium, Finland, Lithuania and Sweden (knockout stage only in Lithuania), the Azzurre will play in two international windows: in November 2026 they will face Slovenia at home on Nov. 11, Austria away on the 14th and again away on the 17th against Latvia, while in February they will be engaged on the 10th in Slovenia, on the 13th at home with Austria and on the 16th again in Italy against Latvia.
The European Championships will also be important in terms of the Olympics: the top six at the end of the continental review will be eligible to play in the pre-Olympic tournament that can lead to Los Angeles 2028.
