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Serbia's coach: The quarterfinal game is the most important one by far

Serbia put up a very weak performance against France yesterday. It's clear that physically strong and defensively sound teams don't suit them. They have lost any realistic chance of getting the 1st place and they will play against Russia to take the 2nd spot and avoid Spain and Italy in the quarterfinals

FIBA Europe / Cosmin Motei

The Serbian team was unable to beat France, just like in the friendlies and they lost any realistic chance of getting the top spot in their group. France did much better from the start and they gained an 8-point lead at the start of the second period. The Serbians soon managed to catch up with them and get to 20-22, but France soon increased the defensive pressure and gained a solid lead by the end of halftime. They continued this trend in the second half. Apart from a good defensive performance, France did very well in offense and were up by +15 after three periods. Serbia only managed to close down the gap a bit in the last period.

- We generally played a poor game. It was definitely not our day. We started off poorly, without any faith that we can win. As France increased their lead, we kept falling down and their confidence grew. They played their best game on this tournament and our mistakes helped them out in that quite a bit. Our shot didn't work too well, we ended the game without scoring a single three-pointer, we had 10 offensive rebounds but points were hard to come by. When it seemed we could get back in the game, we made rookie mistakes. No defeat is pleasant but the quarterfinal game that awaits on Friday is much more important for us. If we play that game like we know how to and get into top four teams on this tournament, everything will be forgotten - today's poor performance and this defeat - said Serbian coach Zoran Tir.

Serbia are an offensively minded team, but they were simply unable to impose their style against France. They were limited to 52 points, 5 assists and 15 turnovers, and their 3-point efficiency was 0/13. Only their best players were at the right level. Aleksandra Crvendakić scored 15 points and got 8 rebounds, while Julijana Vojinović had 13 points.

Now they are facing Russia, another team that's been playing good basketball on this tournament. Last year, Serbia beat Russia by 76-62 at the junior team EC, but those teams were quite different from the ones today. For instance, the best Serbian players were Crvendakić (21 points + 15 rebounds), center Dragana Stanković (20 +9) and Sanja Mandić (14 + 6), who are no longer a part of this team. These two teams also played two years ago at the cadet EC with much more similar squads, and the Russians won by 73-60.

Serbia's scored dropped to 3-1 after their defeat yesterday, just like France and Russia. One can expect France to beat Lithuania today and take the first place and in this case, this game would decide the second spot.

Russia lost the first round game against France in overtime and they will not be able to take the first spot in Group E, unless the Lithuanians somehow surprise France, which is fairly unlikely. Regardless of that, Russia have a great run of four wins. Yesterday, they displayed yet another very good defensive performance and their average number of points allowed per game is now 47.6, which means they are on a par with France. They are the second best team in terms of offense, while Serbia's defense holds the 13th spot, which is the biggest difference between these two teams.

Russia had a fierce start of the game against Belgium and they got a 9-2 lead and +9 at the start of the first period. Their opponents woke up in the second half. Belgium got a 12-0 lead and take the lead but Russia managed to regain control of the game by the end of first half. The Belgians scored only 1 points in the last 4 minutes of the third period, which gave Russia a solid +7 lead ahead of last period. The Russians soon got a double-digit lead and take the game home.

It's always the same story with Russia. Dominant centers Maiga and Sema did great in the paint. They got a combine total of 29 points and 19 rebounds, while Kolosovskaja also did well and got 10 points. The Russians had 67 shots and 34.3% efficiency, 12 assists, only 6 turnovers and 11 steals.

It's well-known that Serbia prefer a faster game, which should actually suit the Russians and if Serbia don't establish the balance in the paint, they will have a hard time getting new points This game is actually very important as the second spot means avoiding Spain and Italy in the quarterfinals, and these two teams have not lost a single game so far.