Italy will play with France in the 1/4 finals of the OI-2020. Do the Italians have any chances?
Italy
The Italians could not solve the problem of reaching the playoffs in the first two rounds, so they had to postpone everything for the last round. In it, Italy defeated the national team of Nigeria with a score of 80-71 and, having scored a total of five points, rose to the second position and finished there. Before that, the Italians lost to Australia (83-86) and beat Germany (92-82) with a confident margin.
France
But the French decided not to worry either themselves or the fans - they got down to business from the very first round and, having won, laid the beginning of a positive series. First of all, we beat the star team of the USA (83-76), and then we expectedly coped with the Czech Republic (97-77) and Iran (79-62). The last match raised questions, because Iran is significantly inferior in class to the French, but sometimes it imposed a fight and even looked more interesting, but it can be attributed to the fact that France simply did not want to waste energy before more important battles in the playoffs.
Statistics and figures:
- Italy won two victories and lost once;
- France won all three matches in the group stage;
- France has won against Italy in the previous eight matches.
Forecast
The Italians are very confident and could have competed for a medal, if not for such a difficult opponent in the first round of the playoffs. France is now really at the peak of its form and is able not only to enter the top three medalists, but also to lead it. I don't think that there will be a sensation in the reporting battle and the French will lose.