Cape Verde v Georgia will be played on Saturday, August 26 in Japan. The meeting will begin at 11:00 Kyiv time.

There will be no particularly interesting sign on the second match day of the 2023 World Cup. In most couples, the favorite and the stranger are clearly distinguished. It can also be seen in the duel of basketball players from the Cape Verde Islands against the Georgia national team. But the match will be interesting from a different angle. In this meeting, two absolute players of the planetary forums will meet face to face, and accordingly one of them will win this historic duel.

Cape Verde Islands

The national team of a small African state was one of the biggest positive surprises of the qualifiers. The islanders passed the qualifying round, surpassing several continental summits, taking the title from Montenegro, becoming the smallest state to participate in the finals of the world basketball championship.

But there were prerequisites for this success. The Cape Verde team has appeared in three of the last four AfroBaskets and finished the 2021 tournament in a fairly high fourth place. Now it’s time for the islanders to prove themselves on the world stage.

The main force, leader and star of the team is the big man Walter Tavares. The Real Madrid basketball player has won the Euroleague twice (2018, 2023) and is the leader in blocky shots in tournament history. And the list of all the significant achievements of the actor will take a very long time. Also, many basketball experts have given Walter the unofficial status of the best non-NBA center.

Cape Verde has no known players other than Tavares. Only swingman Ivan Almeid with a certain progress can be attributed to this, who throughout his career managed to play a lot in good championships (France, Poland) and only in strong teams such as Czech Nymburk.

Georgia

Having officially closed the doors of the planet forum to Ukraine, the Caucasian team brings its best team to Asia. Giorgi Shermadini, Tornike Shengelia, Thad McFadden, NBA reps Sandro Mamukelashvili and Goga Bitadze – these names indicate that the Georgians are planning not to lose their reputation in the first World Cup in their history, despite their debut status. The team’s group, led by Greek coach Ilias Zuros, also contributes fully to these plans.

In the first round, the Europeans will have an advantage over the Africans in all positions except for the fifth point. Only a stylish duel is expected here. Georgi Shermadini versus Walter Tavares, or the Final Four MVP and best defender of the 2022/2023 Euroleague season (Tavares), against the Spanish Liga DIA MVP (Shermadini). It will be a truly old-school battle of top-tier classic centers, not often seen in fights between second-tier teams. This confrontation promises to become a real decoration of the meeting.

***

The duel between Cape Verde and Georgia is historically significant. For some of its participants, the first pancake will not turn out lumpy at all, and the first victory in the opening match of the World Cup will fall into the treasury of the team. But besides that, this match will determine a lot in terms of the tournament. The winner of the first round will take a big step towards the second group stage. The victory of the Georgian national team is more likely, but this is not the case when an outsider has no chance of success.

Sport.ua forecast: Georgia team victory