England 74-84 Italy
Despite finishing with a 7-1 record, finishing 13th meant that we would only enjoy one game at home before having to beat someone away and that team was Italy which was basically an impossible task. Not only do they have home-court advantage, they had better enthusiasm and their game shape was almost perfect. For these reasons, CT and GDP was the only option.
Once it was confirmed I got the double GDP correct and Italy went with TIE, as I expected, then maybe we could pull off the impossible. In reality, Italy were in control for the first three quarters but a late fourth quarter comeback did make it an interesting end. When Duguid scored to bring us back within 1 point with just over a minute to go, then I thought we were destined to win and pull off a big upset, but Italy showed their class to close the game out after a couple of missed three-pointers.
Overall, it's not been a bad season. We have improved on our performance two seasons ago when we lost in the first round and in turn, that has improved our rankings. We currently sit 19th and are the 11th best ranked European team, which would put us in Pot 2 for next seasons Euros, but this is obviously subject to change with further games to go.
As for the rest of the tournament, all fixtures went as expected, except for a shock result for Russia over top-seed Germany, meaning they will not host the next European Championships. This means Czechia are firmly in the driving-seat to host the tournament next season. As previously mentioned, Spain, Italy, Serbia and Israel are ineligible to host.