Original title: The Chinese team advances to the quarter-finals of the Women’s Basketball World Cup (theme)
The quarter-final against France will be played on the 29th (subtitle)
People’s DailyBeijing, September 28th (Reporters Tao Xiangan, Fan Jiayuan, Wang Liang) On September 27th, local time, the 2022 Women’s Basketball World Cup group stage ended in Sydney. In the final round, the Chinese team defeated the Belgian team 81:55, and finally ranked second in Group A with 4 wins and 1 loss, and advanced to the quarterfinals. The situation of the Women’s Basketball World Cup quarter-finals was determined that night. The Chinese team will face the Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist France on September 29.
Before the last game of the group stage, the Chinese team and the Belgian team were both 3 wins and 1 loss, and both had locked in the top eight qualifications in advance. The winning team will advance as the second place in the group. In the face of direct competitors, the Chinese team adjusted in time when they started behind, and gradually found the state of the game. At the end of the half, the Chinese team took the lead 35:28, and in the second half, they took advantage of the opponent’s mistakes to expand their advantages, and finally held the second place in Group A. In this game, 5 players of the Chinese team scored in double figures. Li Meng, who started the game, scored a game-high 16 points; two inside players, Li Yueru and Han Xu, contributed 11 points and 9 rebounds and 10 points and 6 rebounds respectively.
Head coach Zheng Wei believes that this game is an improvement for the team. “If the game has been going smoothly, you may be underprepared if you encounter difficulties later. I think this game is more valuable for training.” Group stage, China The team is in good shape, and in the winning 4 games, they beat South Korea, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Puerto Rico and Belgium by 63 points, 47 points, 35 points and 26 points respectively. Although in the third group match with a 63:77 loss to the US team, but the Chinese team is still in the game to create difficulties for the opponent.
According to this World Cup format, each of the two groups will advance to 4 teams. The quarter-finals will be decided by drawing lots between the top two teams in each group and the bottom two teams in the other group.
The result of the draw on the evening of September 27 showed that the Chinese team will face the fourth-placed French team in Group B. In Group B, Australia, Serbia, Japan, and Canada are all strong teams in women’s basketball. The French team can achieve 3 wins and 2 losses, directly eliminating the Tokyo Olympic women’s basketball runner-up Japan, which has demonstrated its strong strength. Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese team has played against the French team twice, in the Women’s Basketball World Cup qualifier in February and the warm-up match in August. The Chinese team achieved one win and one loss with 103:70 and 52:58 respectively.
In Zheng Wei’s view, the Chinese team still has many problems in the group stage. To prepare for the quarter-finals, it is necessary to find deficiencies in the previous games and make targeted adjustments in a timely manner. Li Meng believes that the teams that advance to the quarter-finals have good strength. “We still have to be prepared to deal with difficulties, play our own characteristics, and face every game with all our strength.”
The quarter-finals of the Women’s Basketball World Cup will be held on September 29, local time. The other three games are: the United States against Serbia, Australia against Belgium, and Canada against Puerto Rico.