First round of European Championship selective group C finishes soon. Favorites and outsiders have already been found out. Bulgaria, Belgium, Georgia and Poland still keeps chance of going to final. As for Portugal, they lost 3 matches one after another and it is quite presumable to be able to have any success. It is true that Georgia’s next competitor is outsider team Portugal but it does not mean that “Crusandars” will win easily. Portugal will do its best to finish first round with wining.
We remind you that Georgia and Portugal met each other before. It was in the first qualifying round of European Championship in 2001 which was hosted by Switzerland in 1999. Georgia with 10-point difference won 75:65 and among 6 teams (Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, Georgia, Ireland, Denmark) got the 4th place and could not go through the next round.
After 11-year pause Georgia and Portugal will meet each other tomorrow. WE remind you that leaders of European Championship 2011 in selective groups are Bulgaria and Belgium. They had 2-2 matches and did not lose yet. The 3- 4th places are kept by Georgia(1 win,1 lose) and Poland( 1win, 2 lose). As it already mentioned Portugal is on the last place, which lost 3 matches.
Georgian staff against Portugal is the following: Giorgi Tsintsadze (“Sopot” Poland), Giorgi Gamkrelidze (“Miteldoitcher” Germany), Torin Green (“Gran Canaria” Spain), Kote Tugushi (Energy Invest” Georgia), Manuchar Markoishvili (“Kantu” Italy), Anatoli Boisa (“Energy Invest” Georgia), Viktor Sanikidze (“Bolonia” Italy), Tornike Shengelia (“Valencia” Spain), Nika Metreveli (“Fortitudo” Italy), Quinton Hols (“Huventud” Spain), Nikoloz Tskitishvili (“Fuenlabrada” Spain), Giorgi Shermadini (“Paratinakos” Greece), Zaza Pachulia (“ Atlana Hawks” the U.S.A.)

Before match with Portugal massmedia was given chance of talking “Crusandars”. Unfortunately, Igor Kokoshov head coach of Georgian National Team discretioned to make any comments after match of Belgium as well as before playing against Portugal. Kokoshov deserves to be estimated well but besides this I do not think that such attitude is good for Georgian Basketball. Zaza Pachulia captain of Georgian Team accepted for giving interview without any problem, as usual he does.
- What happened with Belgium, why we lost?

- All of played bad. We played so bad that cannot say it with words. Belgium did not win. Unfortunately we lost.

- In two matches you got 20 points, do you mean yourself in all?

- It is not matter how much points collected I. Main is that we could win this match, but did not do it. That’s why who collected more points it is not matter.

- What can you say about referees?

- It was not ideal, but I cannot say that it played big role of losing Georgian Team. We watched Georgia-Belgium match several times and realize every detail. This match belongs to the history and now we have to think about match against Portugal. It is true that we are playing with outsiders but we should not confuse due to it. This is A division where there is not weak team.

- You did not say anything tiring journey. According to president of Georgian Basketball Federation Besik Liparteliani unfortunately charters are excluded.

- It would be better if there were charters, but we do not have another choice. We should do our best for going through final.

A few time before forward Nika Tskitishvili changed team “Fuenlabrada”(Spain) and singed up agreement with  primera –division team San-Sebastian “ Laguna Aaron”.

- How long does your agreement last with “Laguna Aaron”?

- I singed up one-year agreement with this team.

- What can you say about agreement conditions?

- I want to mention that, I signed up the best agreement with “Laguna Aaron” after NBA. According to it, it goes without saying that I am satisfied in conditions of this agreement.

Referees and commissar of Georgia-Portugal match:

Commissar: Toni Kolgan (Austria)

Referees : Gil Koen (Israel), Ertan Kartal (Turkey), Vladimer Drabiskovski (Ukraine)

Ronald Labuchidze