Defeated respectively by Slovenia and Germany, Lithuania and France face off this Saturday at 5:45 p.m. (live on Canal+ Sport 360), and it is already a decisive match for the two teams. In the “group of death”, it will take at least two victories to cross the first round, and accumulating three successes would even be ideal to avoid a last day of playing the calculator.
For the Blues, it is above all a match to reassure and reassure themselves. Since the beginning of the preparation, France has not played well, and this absence of “fundamentals” to use Vincent Collet’s term is paid for in cash.
” Attack is the number one concern” Vincent Collet analysis, who regrets a lack of rigor in passes, markdowns, screens… For the coach, the attack of the Blues lacks timing and coordination. To sum up, it’s messy and everyone walks on it. Nando De Colo is not there to set up the systems and control the tempo, while Nicolas Batum, like at the Clippers, is this “glue guy” who puts oil in the wheels. Without them, the attack is seized up.
France, the black beast of Lithuania
Opposite, Lithuania remains a leading opponent even if it has not beaten France since… 2013 in a major competition. While the Blues asserted themselves at the highest level of European and world basketball, Lithuania stagnated, even regressed to the point of even missing the last Olympic Games. The fault of a less brilliant generation and a less dense workforce. Except that it’s still tough as they proved against Slovenia.
Carried by the “twin towers” Domantas Sabonis and Jonas Valanciunas, and the indestructible Mindaugas Kuzminskas as 6th man, the Lithuanians offer classic and disciplined basketball under the thumb of a new coach (Kazys Maksvytis) and a young leader of game (Rokas Jokubaitis). Lithuania is going through a period of transition, and it is obviously under the signs that its foundation and its certainties lie.
Vincent Collet knows this, and beyond a better coordinated attack, he expects rebound and therefore delay screens to prevent the Sabonis-Valanciunas tandem from making the difference. On the teamwe thus evoke a return to action of Moustapha Fall whose 2m18 will not be too much to help Rudy Gobert and Vincent Poirier.
THE OPPONENT
five major : Rokas Jokubaitis, Ignas Brazdeikis, Rokas Giedraitis, Domantas Sabonis, Jonas Valanciunas
Substitutes : Arnas Butkevicius, Martynas Echodas, Marius Grigonis, Mindaugas Kuzminskas, Lukas Lekavicius, Kristupas Zemaitis, Eigirdas Zukauskas
THE LAST THREE FRANCE – LITHUANIA
September 22, 2013 : France – Lithuania (80-66), Eurobasket final
September 13, 2014 : France – Lithuania (95-93), World Cup, 3rd place final
September 7, 2019 : France – Lithuania (78-75), World Cup, group stage
TELEVISION
Canal+ Sport 360, unencrypted from 5:45 p.m.
