BAGATSKIS: “The national team played for the people fighting in Ukraine”

Ukraine national team won the second round of the 2023 FIBA ​​World Championship qualification by defeating the Dutch team away (96:77). Mentor of the Ukrainians after the match Ainars Bagatskis He noted the atmosphere, energy and aggression in the team, thanks to which it was possible to successfully start the match and maintain the advantage:

“As you know, if we compare the European Championship or the previous qualifiers for the 2023 World Cup, we changed the composition, we got a lot of new players, some of them were not included in the last EuroBasket application at the last moment .

During this four-day preparation period, we did not talk much about preparation, we structured basketball according to what we played in defense or offense, so we played basketball similar to the one we played before. The atmosphere, energy, aggressiveness in the team was much more important. This was probably the main reason we started the game well. It is important that we hit all open shots in the first quarter.

Of course, we are currently playing for Ukraine and the people who are fighting in Ukraine, fighting for the independence and freedom of the country. I hope we can make our minimum contribution with our victories. I know a lot of people there are looking at our basketball team.

Often more important today is today’s game. What happens in three days will happen in three days. On the way we lost to Iceland. Then we lost so much, we didn’t get a free throw. 50% of success in basketball is your decisions. And we made terrible decisions in this game. We will forget about this game and focus on the second game. We will play in the familiar arena in Riga, which has become our second home.”

The Ukrainian national team defeated the Netherlands (96:77) and won the second match of the World Cup qualification. Ainars Bagatskis’ team will play their next match against Iceland in Riga on 14 November.