Today, the Georgian national team will play its second match against world champion Spain. This will be third match between the opponent teams as they have faced each other in Slovenia for the first time at EuroBasket 2013, when Igor Kokoshkov was coaching national team and our boys lost by 59:83 against the star-studded Spaniards.
The next time, the national teams of Georgia and Spain met was the 2023 World Cup Qualifiers. The first match was held in Spain and ended with a convincing victory of the Spaniards – 89:61. In the second round match, the Georgian national team hosted the Spaniards at the Tbilisi Arena and won a gained proud victory of – 82:76. Georgians won the match in additional time.
The Spanish national team is now even stronger. NBA and Euroleague players – Lorenzo Brown, Rudy Fernandez, Willy Hernangomez, Usman Garuba and Juan Hernangomez have joined the team coached by Sergio Scorriolo’s. In the first game of the EuroBasket, Spain easily beat Bulgaria – 114:87, and as you know, Georgia lost to Belgium 76:79 in extra time.
As for Goga Bitadze, his condition is still unclear and whether he will be able to play or not will be decided before the game.
The coaches of the teams participating in the upcoming match made comments to journalists:
Ilias Zuros: “There are 4 more matches ahead. We will play the next two matches against teams that can fight for medals, and in the last two games we will face opponent that we must win if we want to qualify. I can say that we will not give up anything! I hope that Goga will play in the next match and the atmosphere will be amazing, as it was against Belgium”.
Sergio Scariolo: “We have a difficult game against a physically strong opponent, who will have the support of a huge audience, and this was also shown in the match against Belgium. Georgian basketball players lost their first match and now they will fight to death to correct their mistake with us. The Spanish national team should be ready for that.”
The match between Georgia and Spain will start at 21:00 today at Tbilisi Arena.
