The fact that the Men's National Team will enter as the head of the new qualifying group (along with Latvia) has been known for several days, but what became clear on Monday night is the exact path we will take with the ultimate goal of securing a ticket to the final phase of the basketball World Cup.
Belgium's double over Serbia was not the most expected result, but it sets the tone for Greece's group and, at the same time, gives them the chance to do even more (possibly irreparable) damage to Aleksandar Pešić's side.
Quite simply, because if Serbia loses on Thursday, it could be one step away from an early and shock elimination!
Of course, Dimitris Itoudis is not concerned with the qualification scenarios of the other countries though but only with the work that his own team has to do.
So the main thing is that Greece is in the pole position of the new group (together with Latvia) and has the first reason to occupy one of its first three positions.
In the first phase, it is possible that even the three victories will be enough to qualify, especially if they are achieved in the first four games against Serbia (away) and Belgium (home and away).
The Men's National Team games against Latvia will take place at a time where Luka Banchi will not have the country's top players (Kristaps Porziņģis and Davis Bertans).
This is all without the contribution of Giannis Antetokounmpo and thanks to the decision of Panathinaikos and Olympiacos to allow the internationals to strengthen the qualification effort.
We should not forget that Greece is in a strong position to be in the World Cup, while Croatia has already been eliminated and Serbia will face every game from now on as "do or die".
Greece's group standings:
- Greece 3-1
- Latvia 3-1
- Turkey 2-2
- Belgium 2-2
- Serbia 1-3
- Great Britain 1-3
* Top three book ticket to 2023 World Cup
Greece's program in Phase II:
- Serbia - Greece (25 August 2022)
- Greece - Belgium (August 28, 2022)
- Greece - Latvia (November 10, 2022)
- Belgium - Greece (13 November 2022)
- Greece - Serbia (February 24, 2023)
- Latvia - Greece (February 27, 2023)
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