The Latvian Women's National Team Will Go to the Final EČ Selection Tour with 13 Basketball Players

The Latvian women's basketball team will go to the final match of the 2023 European Championship qualifiers to be held in Sweden with all 13 players, as the Latvian Basketball Union (LBS) reports The match in Stockholm against the local Swedish national team will take place on Sunday.

Latvia's basketball players have already secured participation in the final tournament, while the Swedish players have no chance to get there anymore All 13 players who participated in the short training camp will go to Sweden.

"Basketball festival in the presence of 10,000 spectators will be a memorable experience for everyone, including the player who we will be forced to leave in the reserve," emphasizes head coach Gundars Vētra "The Swedes didn't play badly in the away game in Tel Aviv on Thursday, but the Israeli team is progressing with every game and deservedly won.

Trip, lost hopes of qualifying for the final tournament, but full stands in the big arena - the Swedish national team has found itself in an interesting situation But - we have to focus on our game.

Some position advantages are ours, in some the opponents could have them We will try to enjoy the Swedish basketball holiday, but we will not present gifts on the court.

" The Swedish Basketball Federation has assembled an experienced team for this meeting, and several long-time leaders will add points to the national team in the game with Latvia This generation of players reached the quarter-finals of the European Championship three times (seventh place in 2013 , sixth place in 2019, eighth place in 2021), moving up to 18th place in the FIBA ranking (ninth place in Europe).

In this cycle, the failure in Riga and two losses to the Israeli team put an end to the chances of the Swedish team to play in the final tournament However, almost 10,000 spectators who have already bought tickets for the match with the Latvian team will use the opportunity to say thank you to the Eldebrinkas sisters and other Swedish stars in person.

The national women's teams of Latvia and Sweden have played 17 matches so far, and the Latvians managed to win only four One of them was on November 14, 2021, when the opponents were defeated 89:70 in the first round of the qualification tournament.

The outcome of the game can no longer affect the order of places in Group J, but it cannot be said that it has no sporting significance The result of every official international match is taken into account when calculating the FIBA ranking, which affects the position of the team in the draw baskets for the next tournaments.

The Latvian national team currently ranks 24th (in Europe – 15th), slightly behind Slovakia and the Czech Republic Every win counts.

Already known 11 participants of the final tournament from the teams of the 16th host countries, Israel and Slovenia, as well as the national teams of Latvia, Spain and Italy, which successfully competed in the first two stages of the qualification tournament, were joined on Thursday, in the penultimate round, by the national teams of Serbia, Montenegro, Turkey, France, Belgium and Greece On Sunday, the winners of the first place in Group I will be determined (the Czech team can afford to lose with a five-point margin in their home game against the Netherlands), as well as the four best runners-up (the safest candidates are Hungary and Slovakia).

One important match will take place in Riga on Sunday: at 16:00 at the "Rimi" Olympic Center Ukraine - Lithuania The balance for both teams is 3-2 so far, the winners will take second place.

The final tournament of the 2023 European Championship will take place from June 15 to 25 In the first stage, two group tournaments and two round of 16 matches will be held in Israel and Slovenia, while the elimination tournament is scheduled to take place in the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana.

The top five teams will qualify for the Olympic qualification tournament The group draw for the final tournament is scheduled for March 8.