Georgian U18 team lost the first match of European Challenger against Spain

The Challenger of the U-18 top teams started in Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, in which the teams of Serbia, Spain, Germany and Croatia participate together with the teams of Georgia and the host country. The team coached by Davit Rogava and Kakha Tomaradze has quite strong rivals, which is due to the fact that Georgia was given a chance to compete with the teams of Division A, which was abolished this year, and we did not refuse to test our strength and gain solid experience. 

As a result, Georgia is in the Challenger of North Macedonia, where the above-mentioned top-class teams compete. North Macedonia can be considered the weakest, however, taking into account that the tournament is held in this country, the hosts are also quite a solid force.

The first opponent of the Georgians was Spain, which is the winner of the last U-18 Division A, and in general, no matter what, the basketball team of this country is always among the favorites. Georgian national team fought a famous opponent and if not for the fatigue that has manifested itself in the final period, the difference in the score would have been much smaller.

The Georgians lost the last ten minutes 2:18 and finally lost the match 42:74 (Statistics). Our team spent 3 periods in battle with the strongest opponent and gained the greatest experience from this match as a whole.

Luka Kutchukhidze showed the best result in our team, who scored 8 points and 8 rebounds in such a way that he missed only 1 ball from the game. Luka Liklikadze became the top scorer with 11 points, who counted 5 rebounds and 2 steals, but he had more losses.

In the second match in our group, Serbia defeated Germany 91:78. The confrontation between North Macedonia and Croatia will end later tonight. Georgian team will hold the second match of the group on August 4, at 23:00 Tbilisi time, against the host Macedonians.