EuroBasket Women, Andrea Capobianco updates Italy's goal
Having passed the group stage of the women’s basketball European Championships with full points, Italy, led by coach Andrea Capobianco, moved from Bologna to Piraeus, Greece, for the knockout competitions: in the quarterfinals Cecilia Zandalasini and her teammates will face Turkey, in the match scheduled at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24.
The taboo of the first phase, which was fatal to the Azzurre in the previous two editions of EuroBasket Women, has been broken and now the women’s national team has a new goal, that of getting into the top four in Europe: “I expect a game of great toughness, in all aspects” explained Capobianco, on the eve of the important challenge against the Turks.
“We absolutely cannot accept their physical game– he added -, we have to play fast basketball, which does not mean finishing in the first seconds of the action. It means not stopping the ball on offense, not playing only on one side and being able to turn the ball over by attacking the area. It will be crucial to keep rebounding and our pressure on some of their players”.
“Turkey has many players used to playing the Euroleague at a high level, we expect a very tough matchup, mentally and physically. However, I think we showed in Bologna that in difficulties we can exalt ourselves” concluded Capobianco, who at the women”s level led not only the senior national team, but also the 3×3 selection capable of qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, held in the following summer because of the pandemic.
