Cyprus 85 - 127 Italia
No surprise here. Italy wins which was pretty logical. Maybe the tactical choices of both teams are a bitt of a surprize ( Italy who clearly has the better team, plays a slow pace tactic, where as Cyprus plays a high paced tactic while clearly having the weaker team...) but other than that, Italy got away with a logical win. they dominated each quarter and ended with a nice difference which will without a doubt lock up that first place for sure ( just in case some miracle would happen and they'd be beat by another team...)
Nederland 102- 108 Belgium
if you take gameshape into considerations, then we were wearly had a better shot their. Futhermore, the Netherlands had caled up 18 players, so no chance to bring in a new guy with good GS to help lift their team when needed. However, i wasn't able to set up ( or call up) the players that i wanted to use for this game, due to the fact that the internet went down at uni. This meant that we would use a tactic that i had set up a week in advance, just incase i couldn't log in for some reason... Theirfor, we certainly didn't play with our best team against them, and were pretty fortunate to pull out a win, after trailing by as much as 14 in the 3rd Q. In the end, we got some lucky breaks with some favorable match up for a few 3 balls which gave Belgium a nice comeback from behind. However, i have to be 100% honnest about this: we got lucky here. Having 4 players with respectable gameshape and seeing them being inserted into positions that were very poor match ups for those players at pretty crucial times, i can tell you this: we were very fortunate to get the win here. However, it is what it is, and sometimes, you need to be lucky ( others will say that if you work hard enough, you'll end up getting luck on your side, but you can't say that in this case). This also means that fight for the second spot is wide open. We still play finland ( Suomi) and Italy, 2 very strong nations, games that we could end up losing without a doubt, meaning that Suomi, the Netherlands and us would all end up with a 5-2 record ( except if Suomi could beat Italy in a CT vs TIE in their last game...) So alot comes down to gameshape and avoiding injuries, but it sure will be very interesting to see how this unfolds. And don't forget that Romania or Norway could also play a decisif role in this by CTing one of those opponents... But for now, it seems that the Belgian NT is playing with a chip on it's shoulder. A good win against Norway and Netherlands has put us in a pretty nice spot with a decent shot at advancing to the next round, but as i've said earlier, nothing is certain. Finland, the netherlands and maybe even romania could very well end up taking that second spot in our pool. So we'll keep taking it one game at a time, and go from their. That will ensure us that we won't overlook anything which would cause us to underestimate our opponent.
Azərbaycan 83 - 98 Suomi
Finland is having a rough time lately and seem a bitt shaken after their loss against the Netherlands. Azerbejan lead the Finnish team for 39 minutes and their biggest lead was 14 points, but in the 4th quarter, the finnish team shifted gears offensifly, aswell as improving on their defense. Azerbejan could very clearly not keep up with their skills and pace once they turned it up, and lost the 4th quarter by 20 points, thus surrendering their lead and the game to the Finnish team. Altho the Finnish team doesn't look very strong after this last game, you shoudln't underestimate them. They've got alot of talent on that team, one heck of an inside attack and have proven several times that they always come up big when things matter the most. Or maybe, Azerbejan is alot stronger than everyone though they were...