Basketball: the French qualified for Euro-2022 after their victory against Montenegro

Drafts in attack for a good twenty minutes, the French basketball players snatched the victory against Montenegro 73 to 71 on Saturday night in Podgorica, a success synonymous with a ticket for the next European Championship, postponed to autumn 2022. With this fourth victory in five qualifying matches for Euro-2022 (1-18 September), the French are guaranteed to finish in one of the first two places in their group, qualifying for the competition postponed for a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A match against Great Britain for the first place in the pool

They will face Great Britain, also qualified, Monday late afternoon (5:00 p.m.) for first place in the pool.

The victory of Great Britain late Saturday afternoon against Germany (83-81) in Podgorica put pressure and a big stake on the match of the France team against Montenegro in the evening, the hosts being forced to win to avoid elimination, and the Blues can find themselves in a complicated situation in case of defeat.

And this pressure was seen.

"We stayed in the game thanks to our defense"

The Blues stammered their attacking game for 20 minutes, with 12 stray balls (8 in the first quarter), and only 31 points scored against a Montenegrin defense well in place.

"With these losses of balls and these missed shots, we stayed in the game thanks to our defense, we did not give up defensively. The second half was not bad, we were tough in defense. , but despite that, they were good, "said France coach Vincent Collet after the meeting.

It was the Dijonnais Alexandre Chassang (11 pts, 17 evaluation) and Axel Julien (6 pts), on two award-winning shots in the heart of the 3rd quarter, who put the Blues back in the game, while the gap was mounted to eleven points in favor of the Montenegrins (46-35, 26th).