Following the conclusion of the Second Round on Monday, the Final Phase of the FIBA World Cup has now been confirmed with eight contending teams slated to go up against each other.
All eyes will be at the Wukesong Sport Arena in Beijing, China where these squads are vying for the coveted Naismith Trophy while they also book their tickets for next year’s Tokyo Olympics.
None of them can afford to lose now and only the last team standing will get to be crowned the champions of the world.
Will a new champion be crowned or will Team USA continue to assert their dominance in the world of basketball?
Allow SBOBET to give you a sneak peek as we look on what’s ahead.
Notable matchups in the Final Phase
Per FIBA World Cup 2019 odds, Team USA remain to be the hot favourites in winning the Naismith Trophy for the third consecutive time.
But even if they are unbeaten so far, it wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies for the Gregg Popovich-mentored squad – especially when they were almost defeated by a tough Turkey side. With their roster isn’t as star-studded as before, they relied heavily on their athleticism, stout defence and teamwork to get themselves through.
After overcoming Greece and Brazil, Team USA will be slated to face France in their quarterfinals matchup. Facing Les Bleus won’t be easy especially with the likes of Rudy Gobert, Nicolas Batum, and Evan Fournier leading the squad. On any given night, these French players can light up the scoreboard and they might upset Team USA if they get lucky.
Another matchup to watch out for is between Argentina and Serbia. Argentina’s pick-and-roll duo of Facundo Campazzo and Luis Scola continues to overwhelm their counterparts as they’ve gone unblemished five games in. They will be put to the test against the mighty Serbs who are the top-ranked country in the world today.
Speaking of Serbia, they are also a formidable team looking to avenge their recent loss against Spain. The group will be headlined by the likes of NBA-ers Boban Marjanovic, Bogdan Bogdanovic, and Nikola Jokic – all who have been extremely efficient in the box score so far. Their crisp ball movement, outside shooting, and size will definitely give the Argentineans fits on defence.
On the other side of the bracket, we will see up-and-coming European teams in Poland and Czech Republic facing perennial contenders in Spain and Australia respectively.
Poland are hoping that they could sustain their run in the tournament, and they’ll have a chance to prove their mettle as they go up against the ever-strong Spanish team. The Mike Taylor-coached squad will be featuring the backcourt tandem of AJ Slaughter and Mateusz Ponitka, who are expected to produce more FIBA World Cup 2019 highlights.
Fresh from their statement win against Serbia, the Spaniards are brimming with confidence coming into this game. Coach Sergio Scariolo has a lot of weapons in his team, especially with a great mix of veterans in Marc Gasol, Ricky Rubio, Sergio Llull, and the Hernangomez brothers.
Czech Republic lost against Greece yesterday, but the latter was eliminated from contention since they didn’t win by at least 12 points. With that said, this marks the first time in history that Czech Republic went to as far as the quarterfinals in the FIBA World Cup. Tomas Satoransky and Ondrej Balvin are expected to bring out their A-game in the quarterfinals.
They will battle against an Australian team stacked with NBA standouts. Patty Mills and Joe Ingles are expected to torch their opponents on offence while the frontcourt duo of Andrew Bogut and Aron Baynes will bring in physicality and veteran leadership.
Looking ahead for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
The other 24 teams who didn’t make it will have to look ahead for next year’s Tokyo Olympics as most of them will be competing for those spots in the upcoming Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
The said tournament will have European countries like Lithuania, Italy, Greece, Russia, Turkey, and Germany, Americas nations like Brazil, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Canada, and other teams like Tunisia and New Zealand.
Nigeria and Iran have qualified directly to the Olympics given that they ended up as the top-ranked countries in their respective continents. The Tigers will be on their third consecutive Olympics while Iran will be making its first appearance since the 2008 edition of the tournament. On the other hand, Japan will get to enjoy the same fate since they are the hosts.
Other teams like China, Montenegro, Korea, Angola, Jordan, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Philippines weren’t as lucky as they’ll fight tooth and nail in order to give themselves a chance to qualify for next year.
China, who served as hosts for this year’s World Cup, is in danger to miss the Olympics for the first time in quite a while the others have been aching to make it back to the quadrennial meet.
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