Just one day's break and back on the pitch today, the second phase of the European basketball championship underway in Slovenia kicks off. In the afternoon, the first match will be between Latvia and Ukraine, followed by Belgium-Serbia, while in the evening France, one of the contenders for the title, will play against tricky Lithuania. Italy, protagonist up to now of a tournament beyond all expectations, will take the field tomorrow, in the difficult afternoon match against the Slovenian hosts, determined to go as far as possible in the competition in front of their own fans.
The Azzurri, who closed the first round two days ago by taking their fifth victory in as many matches, which arrived (without Belinelli) at the end of an irrelevant match against a Sweden that was nonetheless willing to end its participation well, ended up in perhaps the most difficult group , but thanks to the tournament formula they will start from a privileged position. In fact, Pianigiani's team, in this second phase which includes two groups of six teams, with the respective top 4 going through to the quarter-finals, happened not only with Slovenia, but also with Spain, Croatia, Finland and Greece, but thanks from the previous victories he can look forward to the continuation of the event with confidence. This is because the regulation establishes that the formations coming from the same group must not play another match against each other, but the results of the direct clashes in the first phase are taken into account, so Italy will already start with 4 points, Finland with 3 (whoever loses still gets a point, to avoid that a team doesn't show up) and Greece with 2, complete the grouping Spain, Slovenia and Croatia, all paired with 3 points, after defeating each other in their first group.
The Azzurri find themselves with the road cleared also thanks to Finland, which on the last day beat what should have been our toughest opponent, Greece, in one of the many surprise results that gave us the first week of the European Championship , causing a lot of trouble for the Greeks, even if the fact that Spain is not the favorite with full points leaves many games open. The national team coached by the former coach from Cantù, our Andrea Trinchieri, will have to recover at this point, but in doing so they will take away points from the other opponents of the Azzurri, otherwise they would be clamorously eliminated, which we, looking ahead, would not mind .
In the other group we find instead Tony Parker's France and Serbia with 4 points, Lithuania and Ukraine with 3 points, and Latvia and Belgium with 2. On paper, the twelve best teams have arrived at this point, apart from two historic powers like Russia and Turkey, very disappointing in our group, with Latvia emerging victorious from the fray in the east against Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia. Also noteworthy is the historic passage of the turn of Ukraine, passed with France and Belgium, which took away a place from Great Britain, Israel and above all Germany, however without Dirk Nowitzki.
Even if now the matches will gradually become tougher, the first week told us that no team is unbeatable, but there is a great balance, also given by the absences in certain teams of some big names (and we know it well), especially NBA players (Pekovic, Kirilenko, Pachulia, Udrih, Turiaf, Mozgov, Kanter to name a few) despite the number of "Americans" involved in this European, is even 28, with the various Vucevic, Dragic, Ilyasova, Casspi, Gortat, Asik , Turkoglu, Valanciunas, Teletovic and more. Then there would be the absurd question of the various naturalized (we don't know how…), but it deserves a separate discussion.
What is certain is that the two big favorites remain Spain, holders of the trophy in the last two editions (2009 and 2011) and France, with Greece, as mentioned, almost cut out. The Iberians (given at 2,50 for the final victory, while the transalpines are quoted at 5 and our national team is third at 7 times the post) must also do without two NBA stars such as Pau Gasol and Serge Ibaka, but they can rely on other overseas champions such as Ricky Rubio, Jose Calderon, Victor Claver and Marc Gasol, now at the level of his older brother Pau. Among the French, the absence of the Chicago Bulls player, Joakim Noah, weighs heavily, but here too they can count on four other "Americans", namely the star Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, his teammate in San Antonio, Nando de Colo and Nicolas Batum. Apart from the defeat suffered by Slovenia, Spain has scrambled its opponents, giving them sidereal gaps well over 20 points, while France has only been surprised by Germany on their debut, both have shown that they have a superior quality others, even if teams like Serbia, Lithuania or the hosts Slovenia will be tough until the end.
