By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Marco Belinelli discussed Italy’s return to the top level ahead of the 2019 FIBA World Cup underlining that his national team has no reason to fear any other side. “Being back in the World Cup is a very big achievement” he pointed out, FIBA relays. “It’s a great competition, and I was on that 2006 team. We had a young team then, but we’ve always seen this as a great and important competition” added the played of the San Antonio Spurs.
“I think we have a good team” mentioned Belinelli. “We’re ready to play. For sure, there are teams that people say are better than us, but at the same time, we are just focused on being better everyday, in every practice and in every game.”
“Being not so high in the rankings is good motivation for us” he replied to a question on FIBA’s official Power Rankings. “I don’t really care about where people rank us. I just try to improve and be better. We’ll see in this tournament what happens.”
“We faced Serbia two times this summer, first in Greece and then a few days ago” he noted on Serbia, among Italy’s first round foes. “They have a great team, maybe one of the best or favorite teams in the World Cup. They have everything – good players and coach, but at the same time, we are not scared of nobody.”
“We need to take each game seriously” Belinelli furthered. “We’re preparing hard for the Philippines because they have a good team. They play well, run a lot and try to score easy baskets. We just need to be ready against them from the first second of the game and do our thing. We just need to play Italy basketball, be aggressive, be positive and be confident.”