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Italbasket ko with Australia but it’s all in his hands

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TOKYO. A match played on an equal footing, a more than honorable defeat and now a real chance to qualify for the quarter-finals. Meo Sacchetti’s national basketball team makes the Australian battleship suffer the pains of hell, a team highly accredited for a possible medal. The Azzurri lost 86-83 in the second of the three games in Group B and now, with a victory (+10 over Germany) and a defeat, they are preparing to play all the chances of passing the round on Saturday against Nigeria (6 hours, 40), beaten yesterday by the Germans.

A success in the last match would guarantee the Azzurri qualification, but even in the event of a defeat there is some chance to move forward.

For Italy yesterday there was the debut of Marco Spissu, who started in the quintet after watching against Germany, but the drivers were once again Simone Fontecchio, author of 22 points, and Nico Mannion (21) , which together with Polonara kept the hopes of a sensational victory open until the siren. What made the difference was the great physicality of the “boomers”, who dominated under the boards, building the basis of success on the 16 offensive rebounds achieved.

«It was a point-to-point race decided by their kilos and their greater rebounding centimeters – confirmed Danilo Gallinari -. Too bad because we played an excellent match and we could have brought it home ». «We have a lot of room for improvement – added Mannion -, now there are two days of rest and then we will face another great opponent like Nigeria. It’s the beauty of playing an Olympic tournament ». Also because, in the words of coach Sacchetti, “it won’t be a walk in the park”.

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