„Tough group, it will be a big challenge for us. I think Turkey and Poland are the favorites, but Israel is also a tough team to play against. However, we remain focused on ourselves and our goals, first of all to continue with good performances from the March window and to further develop young players.", said the coach.
Turkey qualified for the World Cup in March, and Poland and Israel finished their first-place performances in the EuroBasket qualifiers without defeat.
„Turkey has already returned to the top of European basketball, and now they will also play in the World Cup. I think that will be an advantage for them, because in September they will play games in the championship, and only a month after that they will be together again for the November window in our group. These are players from Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe, who will soon play the Euroleague final tournament, as well as Mersin, who has qualified for the Eurocup final. As for Poland, they are from the third pot, but you should know that in the previous qualifiers they beat the European champion Belgium away, and narrowly lost at home. Poland has a good team and has been together for a long time, and their league is also very high-quality with one club playing in the Euroleague and three in the Eurocup. In the end, even Israel from the fourth pot is very uncomfortable, although they do not have the height in the team, they play very fast basketball, which does not suit us particularly", explained Škerović.
The coach, however, emphasizes that this does not mean that Montenegro will give up the fight for a place in the finals.
„I'm going back to the fact that everything depends on us, on our approach and the maximum that we can show at that moment and I have no doubt that we will show our best. There is still a lot until November, when the leagues will start, so it remains to be seen which teams we and they will be in. We certainly have a difficult task ahead of us, but we will fight until the end", concluded Jelena Škerović.
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