Vyacheslav BOBROV: “We made a lot of mistakes and let the Italians go”

The Ukrainian national team lost to Italy (75:85) and lost the chance to qualify for the World Cup. Budivelnik’s forward Vyacheslav Bobrov had a good game against Squadra Azzurra, but it wasn’t enough.

“It was emotionally difficult, it was a very noisy hall. We made too many mistakes and let the Italians move forward. I think we played well, showed good basketball, but there wasn’t enough struggle from us. We didn’t shoot many free throws. The Italians hit, he was aggressive on the rebounds. We lost a lot in transfers. It was difficult to play because there were only 10 of us, Vladimir Konev, Anatoly Shundel were missing.

We will play 120 percent against the Netherlands, we need to win in front of our fans. Although we know that we will no longer reach the World Cup, we want to finish qualifying on a positive note. We will give our 100% for ourselves.

A year has passed since terrorists invaded Ukraine. It was emotionally difficult but only the first minutes because everyone knows that we have a great responsibility not only for ourselves, but for the whole Ukraine. We never forget the war, we know that our relatives, friends, fans are at home. “We are all waiting for the main victory of Ukraine,” said Bobrov.