By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Spain with the win over Argentina locked not only a place in the quarterfinals of the Rio basketball tournament, but also a match-up with France.
The two teams know each other pretty well and Pau Gasol, speaking just after the game, explained that one way or an other, nothing was going to be easy in the knock out stage of the tournament: “France is a team that we have faced many times. It’s going to be a difficult match-up. We know them well. They beat us two years ago, we beat them last year and now, we face each other again in a critical game in the quarterfinals so we’re just going to have to prepare well and see who wins this time.”
France upset Spain in the quarterfinals of the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Madrid but last year, Gasol led Spain past France after overtime in Lille for Eurobasket 2015. So they both got a big win on their opponents’ home soil and it seems that the epilogue for this generation of stars will be written in Rio.
“You can’t expect an easy match-up in the quarterfinals anyway, especially with the level of the teams that are moving forward,” Gasol said. “We know it’s going to be difficult no matter what. Now we’ve got to rest, prepare and continue playing the way we’ve been playing the last three games. The intensity, the defensive mindset, moving the ball with the pace that we’re playing, if we do that, we’ve got a good chance”.