In Tel Aviv, they won in the group over Italy and home Israel, they also managed a playoff match with Greece and are surprisingly among the elite eight on the continent. The women’s national team has been waiting for a similar result for ten years, and on Thursday in Ljubljana against Hungary, they will fight for the first place in the EC semi-finals since 2011. Moreover, they are still in the game for participation in the Olympic qualification.
“At the last three ECs, the Czechs finished in the basic group each time. “The upcoming representative generation needed such an impulse. There are a lot of young players in the team. Hats off to how they handled it. The whole thing was very much about morale on board. Now we are all a bit euphoric, we couldn’t even imagine that we will be sitting on a plane to Slovenia on Tuesday,” claimed the coach, who replaced Štefan Svitek in the senior national team last year after success with youth selections.
The road to the Greek scalp was not easy at all. “Under the basket, compared to the Greek pivots, we lost physically, in terms of height and experience, but in the end we managed it with great fighting spirit,” Ptáčková told ČTK. it’s difficult, but I’m convinced that we deserve this victory for our fighting spirit and teamwork,” she praised the will of her charges.
The move with the deployment of substitute Dominika Paurová worked out great. “I wasn’t even nervous, I knew there was nothing to lose, I just flew in there and did what I could. I enjoyed it in the end, the fans were heard, we did well. The Greek women were strong under the basket, we knew we had to take advantage of their pivots. I’m there to jump the ball and play aggressively, so I thought I’d just skip them. I think the whole team kept believing and in the end even the nerves were over,” said the 18-year-old pivot, who will study at Oregon State University starting in the fall.
Less than two minutes before the end, the Czech Republic took a 75:68 lead, but Greece repeatedly reduced the difference to a single point. “Fortunately, Petra Holešinská always averted any turnover with her infallible free throws. It was also important that we limited losses and had the ball under control more often,” said Ptáčková.
Photo: Czech Basketball Federation
The coach of the Czech national basketball team in an archive picture.
The coach has not yet thought about Thursday’s opponents for the quarter-finals of the Hungarians, who dominated Group D in Ljubljana. “Now all I can think about is moving to Slovenia. When I realize that Veronika Voráčková has renewed ankle pain and Eliška Hamzová also has a slight sprain, we will welcome two days off. I hope that we will get into the lineup of twelve people again,” added Ptáčková.