Rome – The Spanish basketball team will premiere this Friday its status as brand new European champion against Italy in the town of Pesaro (north), in a match in which the victory would put the qualification for the World Cup on track. 2023 to be held jointly in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia.
Italy and Spain, second and first in the group, respectively, tied on eleven points, will decide on Italian soil for first place in the group and the possibility of closing the mathematical classification -in this same window- for the World Cup, which will take place on 25 from August to September 10 of the next year.
The team led by the Italian Sergio Scariolo starts as the favorite, who has been training in the town of Bologna so that the coach could combine his position as coach of Virtus Bologna, a Serie A basketball team, with his work with the absolute Spanish male.
The champions were the revelation of the European exhibiting a choral team basketball, led by an exceptional Willy Hernangómez who was ultimately recognized as the best player of the tournament.
La Familia, with a list with up to seven changes compared to the one already known as the call for ‘The 12 from Berlin’, without Lorenzo Brown, Jaime Pradilla, Rudy Fernández, Xabi López-Arostegui, Willy Hernangómez, Usman Garuba and Juancho Hernangómez, will try to solve this confrontation against Italy and the next one against the Netherlands, in Huelva, to seal qualification for the World Cup by leading group L.
The players who had Euroleague commitments (Rudy, López-Arostegui, Pradilla and Lorenzo Brown), or those who play in the NBA (Willy and Juancho Hernangómez, and Garuba) have not attended the call.
However, they will face an Italian team that left a very good taste in the mouth in the European past, in which they fell in the quarterfinals against France, which reached the final of the championship.
Unlike Spain, the Italian team led by Italian Gianmarco Pozzeco has called up players with midweek Euroleague games such as Niccolo Mannion, Paul Bligha, Stefano Tonut, Giampaolo Ricci, Tommaso Baldasso and Alessandro Pajola.
The expedition of the Spanish team in this November international window is made up of: Francis Alonso, Jonathan Barreiro, Ferran Bassas, Darío Brizuela, Pep Busquets, Alberto Díaz, Jaime Fernández, Rubén Guerrero, Juan Núñez, Joel Parra, Sebas Saiz (captain ), Miquel Salvó, Yankuba Sima, Edgar Vicedo, Eric Vila and Santi Yusta.
For its part, the Italian is made up of: Riccardo Moraschini, Amedeo Tessitori, Marco Spissu, Alessandro Pajola, Niccolò Mannion, Paul Biligha, Tommaso Baldasso, Stefano Tonut, Giampaolo Ricci, Davide Moretti, Matteo Spagnolo, Guglielmo Caruso, Michele Vitali, Luca Severini, Nicola Akele, Tomas Woldetensae, and John Petrucelli.
The match will be played at the Vitrifrigo Arena (Pesaro), at 9:00 p.m. (+1 GMT). Next Monday, November 14, Spain will receive the Netherlands national team in Huelva, at the Carolina Marín Sports Palace.