After one-day break, the Georgian national basketball team returns to the European Championship 2015. After 2 failures at the start of the tournament, Greece will be the opponent of the apprentices of Igor Kokoskov.
On game day, the opponents had planned only morning practices, however instead of “Zagreb-Arena” they went to “Cibona” hall. Georgian players appeared on the arena first and trained with full staff. No one is injured and the main attention was paid to the basket shooting.
According to the recent results, it is difficult to think about the success against Greece, however play with loser’s mentality is wrong. The same thing said the Georgian team’s forward Viktor Sanikidze: “We understand that according to the current situation, the match against Macedonia will be decisive, but before that the match against Greece is ahead. Today, we are concentrated on this mach and the preparations were appropriate. We will think about Macedonia after this”.
The training of the Georgians was not ended when the Greeks entered the stadium. Their practice lasted for an hour and then they made comments.
First of all, the opinion of Greece national team’s head coach Fotios Katsikaris was interesting. He made the following statement: “Only the name and the history cannot win the game. We play every game for victory and are ready for everything. Georgia is dangerous team. The most dangerous among them is Shengelia, who I know from Valencia. He is a key player of the team”.
Kostas Kaimakoglou: “the victory over Croatia was very important for us, however if we do not play the rest games this victory will not bring us anything. We know Georgian team well and know their strong sides as well, however, we have developed a plan which should bring us victory”.
Kostas Koufos: “We have two victories behind, but this is only the beginning. Georgia is that opponent, who knows play in defense and attack. We are ready for everything. I believe the Greece national team is getting better day by day in this tournament. My dream is to win gold medal of EuroBasket. We must move forward step by step”.
Recall the match between Georgia and Greece starts at 20:00.
Dato Manjavidze, specially for worldsport.ge from Zagreb
