The Georgian national basketball team is at Arena Zagreb and is preparing for the first game of EuroBasket. The bus of the Georgian team arrived at the arena at 15:45. The Georgian basketball players were greeted by 30 fans at the entrance. We saw 3 groups of the Georgian fans at the arena. About 100 fans will support the national team during the game.

Netherlands have more fans. Dozens of fans dressed in orange are already sitting in the hall. We saw a beautiful lady dressed in Ralf de Pagter’s T-shirt. She turned out to be a girlfriend of one of the leaders of the Netherlands national team. She hoped Ralf would play successfully today. She told us at least 200 Dutch fans will attend the game.

Toon van Helfteren, head coach of the Netherlands national team, was outside the hall. He was waiting for other members of the coaching staff. He was in a good mood and was concentrated on the upcoming game.

“What can I say? It will be the toughest game. Georgia has the best composition. We can achieve success with good team game. Today we have the first game at EuroBasket. If we win, anything can happen in the remaining games”, - noted van Helfteren who was in a hurry.

All Georgians are already in the hall 15 minutes before the start of the game. They are sitting in one sector and supporting the players.

Here is a lineup of the Georgian team: Zaza Pachulia, Tornike Shengelia, Giorgi Tsintsadze, Manuchar Markoishvili and Viktor Sanikidze.

Dato Manjavidze, specially for worldsport.ge from Zagreb