The meeting between Croatia and Ukraine will take place on Thursday (September 8th) in Milan. The fight begins at 15:15 Kyiv time. The match will be broadcast live on Xsport TV channel.

With Ainars Bagatskis’ duel with the Croatian national team, EuroBaket will draw a line under his performances in the six C’s in 2022. We can already say that the group tournament was a success for our team. After the third round, Ukraine secured a place in the playoffs, but the match against the Balkans will determine the next tournament group for the Blue-Yellows.

The different options for our compatriots are very wide. Let’s start with the simplest – the victory is guaranteed to leave the last second place in the group for the Ukrainians. But with a possible defeat of the Ainars Bagatskis team from the Croatians, everything will depend on the final difference in the score, because in this case there will be a triple twist between Italy, Croatia and our team in group C (at the same time, Italy still has to win against Great Britain today, but everything is clear before the game). If this hypothetical Ukrainian debacle happens with a score gap of up to seven points, we will still be second with a final margin of eight to sixteen points, the Blue-Yellows will lose third and seventeen points or more. will put us in fourth place.

All of the above is crucial for Ainars Bagatskis’ men in the context of the later tournament path. In the 1/8 finals, our team will duel someone from group D and we want to avoid facing one of the main favorites of the tournament in Serbia’s special team. parallel six. So the main thing is not to lose 17 points or more to the Croats. All other possible opponents in group D (Poland, Finland, Israel or the Czech Republic) can be played successfully. And they will certainly not be stronger than the Italian team we beat in EuroBasket.

The Croatian national team started playing as a separate team from the early 90’s and achieved the greatest success in the Balkans in this time period. “Checkered” won two bronze medals at the 1993 and 1995 European Championships, a prize of the same rank at the 1994 World Championships, and a silver medal at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. However, after that, the Croats smoothly shifted to the level of the continental middle peasants, alternating between successful and not very large tournaments. And now Croatian basketball is going through tough times. Our current opponents did not qualify for the 2019 World Cup and this summer they disgraced the whole of Europe by failing to even pass the first qualifying round for the 2023 World Cup.

So at the current EuroBasket, the Croatians are eager to fix their tarnished reputation, especially since they gathered their strongest players on the continental forum, including a triple basketball player from the “checkered” NBA.

In general, the Croatian national team’s application to EuroBasket is as follows:

advocates: Jalen Smith (Alba Berlin, Germany), Tony Perkovich (Orleans, France), Krunoslav Simon (Anadolu Efes, Turkey), Bojan Bogdanovic (Utah Jazz, NBA), Lovro Gnidic (Cedevita Olympia), Slovenia), Dominik Mavra (“Split”) ” “)

Striker: Roko Prkacin (Girona, Spain), Mario Hezonya (Real Madrid, Spain), Dario Saric (Phoenix Suns, NBA), Carlo Matkovic (Cedevita Olympia, Slovenia), Ivan Ramlak (Shlensk, Poland)

Centre: Ivica Zubac (Los Angeles Clippers, NBA)

In the current tournament, the Croats have had alternating victories and losses so far. In the opening match of the EuroBasket, our opponents looked very good against one of the main favorites of the Greek national team, but in the end they lost – 85:89, followed by the expected defeat of Great Britain – 86:65, having a lot of trouble with the “checkered” Estonians in the third round, but nevertheless he won a very important victory – 73:70 and in his fourth match Croatia lost to the hosts of the championship on the Milan parquet – 76:81 .

After four games played, Bogdan Bogdanovich is the most productive among our opponents (average 16.3 points per game). He is followed by naturalized American Jalen Smith (12 points + 5.3 assists) and NBA tall man Ivica Zubac (11.8 points + 6.3 rebounds).

If before the start of the European Championship most of the fans and basketball experts predicted that our team would fight for the last place in the playoffs with the Estonian national team, then during the EuroBasket Ukraine proved that it can do more. And today, all fans of Ukrainian basketball have the right to expect the Blue-Yellows to win or at least play a good game against a strong opponent, especially since the result is very important in terms of further prospects for the Ainars team. Bagatskies. It remains to wish once again that our team will please their fans and finish the group tournament on a positive note.

Sport.ua forecast: Victory of the Ukrainian team

Sport.ua will broadcast a text online broadcast of the Croatia v Ukraine match.

September 8

Croatia – Ukraine

Estonia – Greece

United Kingdom – Italy