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Latvian women’s basketball team In the qualifying match of the European Championship in Riga today he meets with Germany.
Latvian basketball players will meet with Germany in the first game of the mini-tournament at the Elektrum Olympic Center in Riga at 19.45. The match will be broadcast live on the TV channel TV7.
Since the first qualifying tournament games a year ago, the German national team has not played, while Latvia lost twice to Finland in the experimental lineup in the summer – 63:68, 66:74.
Comparing the team’s ability a year ago, Germany played a little better against its opponents, beating Northern Macedonia at 105:40 at home and conceding to Croatia with 86:93. Latvia lost at home to Croatia with 65:83, but outperformed Northern Macedonia with 98:39.
In the previous two mutual games with the “golden generation” of Latvian women in the 2005 European Championship final group tournament, Latvia won with 77:67, but two years later in the final tournament in Italy, Latvia was superior in the second group tournament with 60:47.
In the first game of the day, Croatia and Northern Macedonia will meet, but on Saturday, Northern Macedonia will play with Germany first, and then Latvia and Croatia will meet.
After two rounds in Group I, the Croatian national team has two victories, Latvia and Germany one by one, while Northern Macedonia remains in the beige.
The Latvian national team has completed six trainings before the first race.
At the beginning of the week, the coaching team devoted a lot of time to showing the players a video with the last games of the opponents.
The opponent of the Latvian national team Germany has arrived with 14 players, while the Latvian national team has 12 basketball players available. This is due to the fact that basketball players are only allowed to participate in the “bubble” after three negative Covid-19 tests, but the housewives were injured at the last minute.
The coaches of the Latvian Latvian national team expect a very aggressive game, chaos on the field and pressure on the small players, although it is impossible to fully predict the opponent’s style of play, because the coach has changed between games, now Volt Hopkins leads the team.
This autumn, several Latvian national basketball players (Elīna Babkina, Paula Strautmane) had to spend time in self-isolation, some of them playing only a couple of matches at the club level.
The final tournament, scheduled for June 2021 in Spain and France, will qualify the winners of nine groups and the top five runners-up.
It has already been reported that at the end of this year and the beginning of next year, the games organized by the FIBA national team will take place in one place, not at home or at guests, as usual. The FIBA Executive Committee decided on the national team matches scheduled for November this year and February next year after assessing health risks and receiving recommendations from medical and competition commissions.
The new rules stipulate that the games will not be played away or at home, but in one venue, which FIBA will have to agree in advance with the country that has committed to hosting the matches. Covid-19 tests will be required at the venue, as well as a strict movement regime, as the teams will live in a “bubble”.
Composition of the Latvian women’s basketball team for participation in the qualification tournament of the 2021 European Championship:
Elīna Babkina (Oradea “Nadezhda”, Russia), Ilze Jākobsone, Ieva Pulvere, Kitty Laksa, Karlīne Pilābere (all – “TTT Rīga”) Kate Krēsliņa (“Castors Braine”, Belgium), Paula Strautmane (Pecs “Pecs”, Hungary ), Luīze Šepte (“University of Latvia”), Anete Šteinberga (Istanbul “Galatasaray:, Turkey), Zenta Melņika (Uppsala“ KFUK-KFUM ”, Sweden), Kristīne Vītola (Miskolc DVTK, Hungary), Laura Meldere (Venice“ Umana Reyer ’, Italy).
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