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The time for talking is finally over.

Italy coach Carlo Recalcati cannot wait for the opening tip in the EuroBasket Additional Qualifying Round, with his team starting their campaign against France on Wednesday night.

After a month of preparations, Recalcati is eager to test his team and fight for a place in Poland.

"Finally we play," Recalcati said. "But I have emphasized to my players, this is not a single game. It is just the start.
"This is a group where we must also face Finland. The battle against France will be tight, but we are ready."

Italy will face a France team that has suffered a pair of high-profile setbacks in the last week, first having Joakim Noah ruled out as the Chicago Bulls refused to release him, and then losing Tony Parker to a sprained ankle which will rule him out of Wednesday's game. He may return later in the AQR.

"France will be different from what we have seen during the preparations," Recalcati said.

"They don't have Parker and Noah. They will have a differerent roster, much younger...We should be ready for something different.

"We should not leave anything to chance and play an intense game. We must prove we are more of a team."

In the opposite camp, France coach Vincent Collet is well aware of the importance of this game, and is not shying away from the pressure on his team.

"French basketball needs this qualification," he said. "We have a great responsibility. Although we have only had a short preparation, we want to launch into this competition.

"We will have to maintain our usual high tempo against Italy. They are strong and they can slow the pace down. We do not want this to happen."

PopularByDemand wrote:Mancinelli's injury was key in Italy's loss. He was arguably their best player during the first half.

Julio wrote:Wow, nice victory for us, hard fought game.. I tought the shoot with the foul by your captain ( at least that's what french commentators said, he was number 7 I think) was a clincher, but Batum and Diot, the young ones, answered well. Good game by Diaw, good game by Pietrus ( WTF with the 4 3 pters at the end of the game tough), bad game for De Colo, I was hoping for better.
Jeanneau, as always, was steady, and will be a great backup for Tony.

I was impressed with your PG, he's really, really fast, and by Bellineli's faculty to go the line almost whenever he wanted. Bargnagni had a nice game, but not a great one. Kinda sad to see that when he wanted to score, he could, using his length and speed, but maybe wasn't agressive enough.

Toxicity wrote:

Julio wrote:Wow, nice victory for us, hard fought game.. I tought the shoot with the foul by your captain ( at least that's what french commentators said, he was number 7 I think) was a clincher, but Batum and Diot, the young ones, answered well. Good game by Diaw, good game by Pietrus ( WTF with the 4 3 pters at the end of the game tough), bad game for De Colo, I was hoping for better.
Jeanneau, as always, was steady, and will be a great backup for Tony.

I was surprised by Batum... what improvements for him!

Also Pietrus did great but it's not new since he's one of the best PFs in Europe...

I was expecting more from De Colo and Turiaf, i admit.

And now you'll have also Parker... the qualification is 99,9% sure for you.

I was impressed with your PG, he's really, really fast, and by Bellineli's faculty to go the line almost whenever he wanted. Bargnagni had a nice game, but not a great one. Kinda sad to see that when he wanted to score, he could, using his length and speed, but maybe wasn't agressive enough.

Our starter PG, Giuseppe Poeta, is fast yeah but yesterday played few minutes (i don't know why) and didn't do well... his substitute Vitali, last mistake apart, did a good job finding the open man under the basket.

Bargnani wasn't involved at all... especially in the 1st half... so i'd say he played just decent... he looked lost on difense and under the boards though.

Recalcati go home!!!

Italy survived with a thrilling 77-75 win at Finland in the Additional Qualifying Round for the EuroBasket.

The never-say-day Finns trailed in their fortress Vantaa by 13 points in the fourth quarter but staged a furious comeback and had a chance to win in the waning seconds but Teemu Rannikko was off target with a three-ball.

The Azzurri, who lost their opening game at home to France in overtime, are now 1-1 and firmly in the hunt for a place in the EuroBasket while Finland are 0-2.

As France won in Italy by three points, the Italians know they must win by four points or more on Friday to gain the edge in a potential tie-breaker.

Finland will be hoping for an Italy win as well to keep their own hopes alive.

On Tuesday night, Italy dominated early on and led 17-10 by the end of the opening quarter.

They out-rebounded Finland 16-7 in the opening 10 minutes and the Finns, who shot so well from long range against France on Saturday, missed all seven of their attempts from behind the arc.

The momentum began to swing Finland's way when Italy's Andrea Bargnani picked up his third foul three minutes into the second quarter and had to leave the contest.

Though the Italians stayed on top, Henrik Dettmann's team eventually began to make inroads and outscored the Azzurri 15-6 over the last 3:38 over the frame to only trail 38-34 at half-time.

Italy's Marco Belinelli led all scorers with 10 points at the break.

The Finns kept the pressure on for the first 7:14 of the third quarter but Carlo Recalcati's players kept their noses in front before seemingly taking control with a 7-0 spurt for a 61-51 lead.

The advantage ballooned to 70-57 with 7:41 to play on a Belinelli three-ball and Finland appeared to be in trouble.

Rannikko, Bargnani and Petteri Koponen all drilled three-pointers to leave Italy in front at 73-63 when visiting captain Matteo Soragna was slapped with a technical foul.

Rannikko sank a pair of free-throws and Finland, who retained possession, then got a dunk from Kimmo Muurinen to close the gap to 73-67.

Fouled on the shot by Belinelli, Muurinen went to the charity stripe and converted the three-point play to reduced the arrears to just five points.

Following a Belinelli jumper with 4:52 to go, both teams went cold from the floor before Hanno Möttölä hit a jumper to take his haul to a team-high 16 points for Finland.

Finland, upping the pressure on defense, then drew an offensive foul by Belinelli and Shawn Huff responded by nailing a three-pointer to pull the Finns to within 75-73.

With cracks showing in the Italian armor, Bargnani picked up his fifth foul and put Koponen on the line.

The young Virtus Bologna guard made two to knot the contest at 75-75 with 1:42 remaining.

Belinelli replied with a jump shot to restore the two-point edge, and neither side scored again.

Rannikko missed from behind the arc, but Marco Mordente turned the ball back over to Finland.

Koponen then failed to connect from long range with 25 seconds to go, yet Huff's offensive rebound kept the ball in the home team's hands with 25 seconds to play.

Rannikko bravely attempted the last shot with just three ticks on the clock remaining and missed, and Mordente hauled in the rebound.

Belinelli led all scorers with 23 points and Bargnani had 21 with a game-high eight rebounds.

Italy ended up out-rebounding Finland 37-29.

Joana wrote:It seems Portugal won't make the Eurobasket this time, two of their starters are infected with swine flu and some other players are presenting symptoms.