[Vilius]

2007-09-03
Latvia vs Croatia 19:00 GMT
Portugal vs Spain 21:30 GMT

Latvia could be a tough opponent for Croatia. This could be a close game since Croatia is also missing some key players. Latvia lost 91:92 after overtime against Lithuania in the opening game of Eurobasket 2003 and did the same against favourites Spain in 2005. Croatia are slight favourites in this one.

One more opportunity for Spain to thrash yet another team. This should be an easy game for them but I'd like to see serious resistance from the Portuguese. It is very possible that Spain will have a comfortable lead right after 1st quarter.

[rikhardur]

Latvia 85 Croatia 77
(Armands Skele 17 pts + 6 rebs + 5 assists | Mario Kasun 18 pts + 5 rebs)

[rikhardur]

Portugal 56 Spain 82
(Paulo Cunha and Joao Santos 9 pts | Pau Gasol 19 pts)

[Luke]

See the host nation had a fairly easy win by judging from the score.

[Vilius]

Here's the first shock - Latvia beat Croatia. I said it should be a tight game but I think we all thought it will be Croatians who will celebrate their win. Latvians did a great job securing a very important win and if they don't make another sensation by beating Spain, they should have a guaranteed 2nd spot in the group.

I saw the start of Spain's game and I was cheering for Portugal of course. Unfortunatelly Portuguese couldn't cope with world champions but at least it took time for Spain to increase their lead to a secure advantage. +26 points is impressive although everyone thought it would be even bigger.

[rikhardur]

Croatia 90 Portugal 68
(Marko Popovič 14 pts | Joao Gomes 17 pts)

Portugal once again bites the dust.
Joao Gomes finally showed a bit of what he can do. It's clear he needs more top level play.

[Vilius]

I saw some episodes and Portugal were close in the first half. However Croatians concentrated on their game and did what they had to do. I think that playing in Eurobasket is a very valuable experience for Portuguese players since they don't get a chance to test their skills against top quality teams. What about coverage in Portugal? Are these games being discussed by media?

[rikhardur]

Vilius, on 04 September 2007 - 08:13 PM, said:

What about coverage in Portugal? Are these games being discussed by media?

They are, but not that much. In fact I expected more coverage and interest, naive me
The public channel decided to broadcast the games only some days before it started, you can see how they prepared for the event


Spain 93 Latvia 77
(Pau Gasol 26 pts + 9 rebs | Andris Biedrins 17 pts + 5 rebs)

[Vilius]

Thanks for info rikhardur. Qualification for Eurobasket is really a positive sign for Portugal and you will have a team in ULEB Cup so hopefully it will help basketball to grow there.

Latvia failed to make the biggest shock possible. A comfortable win for Spain. It looks like Croatia will have to live with 3rd place in this group since Latvia should defeat Portugal tonight.

[rikhardur]

A round full of surprises! Who would tell Portugal would beat Latvia and Croatia would beat Spain? Worse, that Portugal would qualify for the next stage? Unbelievable!

[Vilius]

Portugal 77:67 Latvia

Portugal: Joao Santos 14, Mario-Gil Fernandes 14.
Latvia: Kristaps Janicenoks 21, Andris Biedrins 14.

As rikhardur said before it was the first sensation of the day but not the last on in this group. It looked that Latvia couldn't ask for a better opponent in the last game. A win could have guaranteed them 2nd place in the group. But Portugal had other ideas. I didn't see the game but I can confidently say that Portugal did a great job. Now they are in the second round ready to make more upsets

Croatia 85:84 Spain

Croatia Marko Popovic 18, Marko Tomas 13, Marko Banic.
Spain: Pau Gasol 26, Rudy Fernandez 14.

The result that I was waiting a lot. How come the "unbeatables" lost? And moreover against a team that lost to Latvia and misses a few players. It's good to see Popovic leading his team. I think Spain are still the favourites but the gap between them and other teams is not as huge as everyone predicted. I knew that they will lose sooner or later. They can count themselves lucky to lose now rather than in quarter-finals for example. Final group standings look very weird

1. Croatia 2/1 5
2. Spain 2/1 5
3. Portugal 1/2 4
4. Latvia 1/2 4