Beijing (AFP)

The French will re-motivate after the defeat in the semi-final against Argentina to beat Australia in the match for third place at the World Basketball Championship, Sunday (10:00 am French time) in Beijing, because "a medal, it can not 'only once in a lifetime,' says Captain Nicolas Batum.

Q: How did the group digest the defeat?

A: "We have to move forward anyway, we talked about this morning, we had a meeting between us, we looked at the pictures (of Friday's defeat) and we moved on to something else. gamberger 150. We have a game against Australia to get a medal and we are focused on it. "

Q: How to find the motivation?

A: "It would be historic for France to make two medals in a row at the World Cup, the result can remain positive because there is the direct qualification for the Olympics, there is one last world square, but the medal will still be more Evan (Fournier), Nando (De Colo), Rudy (Gobert), Andrew (Albicy) or I already have medals, but it is not sure that in the next editions there will be some It can only happen once in a lifetime to have a medal in a World Cup, so you have to do everything so that those who do not have one have one. which can happen later. "

Q: Do you expect a very different match from the previous one against Australia (lost on Monday 100 to 98)?

A: "Of course, we go from a pool match, to a challenge, to a very big game, both teams will be motivated and they lost in the semifinals when they wanted to go all the way. This is the one who wants the most will win.The fatigue is the same on both sides, it will not necessarily be tactical either.It will do what we have done from the beginning.We should not summarize our tournament what happened against Argentina, it would be a bit sad compared to the work we did, we did before that one six high quality matches, six perfect match starts and a big defense at Every time, that's what we'll have to do tomorrow. "

Interview at a press point

© 2019 AFP