Finland and Croatia last met a couple of months ago. Lauri Markkanen became the decider of that match with his last-minute three-point shot.
Janne Karinkanta,
Joel Sippola
Susigengi will face Croatia in the quarterfinals on Sunday at 15:45. The match will be shown live on channels.
The Finnish men’s national basketball team, which arrived in Berlin, is well on its way to preparing for the quarterfinal match against Croatia on Sunday. The wolf gang traveled from Prague to Berlin shortly after the match against Holland. The trip was made by bus.
– There were good feelings on the bus. From the initial trip, some phones were browsed. I was supposed to watch a movie, but the guys were playing cards, so I just went along, good-natured Lauri Markkanen said on Friday in Berlin.
Croatia is already a familiar team to Finland from this summer. At the beginning of July, Susigengi beat Croatia in the first group match of the World Cup qualifiers. At that time, Markkanen sank a decisive three-point shot in the last moments.
Will that throw bring extra tension to Sunday’s match?
– At this point, all teams are motivated and ready to play. I don’t think there’s much reminiscing about the old ones.
A physical opponent
After Thursday, a little speculation has arisen about the NBA star Bojan Bogdanovic action in the closing moments of the match against Ukraine. He missed the free throw and dropped his team to the third place in the group.
Sports expert Antero Lehto saw Bogdanovic intentionally miss. Croatia was thought to have wanted Finland as their opponent in the first playoff round. The winner of the match will face either Spain or Lithuania in the quarterfinals.
– I don’t know what they were thinking or what the purpose was. We focus on our own work. I hope we can handle it, says Markkanen.
Markkanen considers Croatia a physical opponent.
– In the previous match, you noticed how big guys there are. Sure, Croatia is a dangerous team with a few NBA bigs.
Susijeng won three of their five preliminary group games. The opening loss to Israel stung, as Finland had beaten the team only a week earlier in the World Cup qualifying round.
– It says a lot about the character of the team that the very next day we were able to play a really good game against Poland. We had a difficult moment against Serbia, but we came back again. It’s been a fun trip with these guys. Hopefully it’s just the beginning.
Markkanen himself has played a strong tournament so far. However, there is better to come.
– I don’t think I’ve played my best game yet. I hope I can do it again in this tournament.
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