An all-Europe war is about to break out on the basketball floor this coming Tuesday, as France and Italy collide in an intriguing quarterfinals match. Which team will advance to the semifinals? Check out our preview of this game below.
Italy opened the tournament with a 92-82 win over the Germans in group play and ended it with an 80-71 victory over Nigeria. Sandwiched in between was a close 86-83 loss to Australia. Had some breaks went their way, the Italians could have been undefeated going into the knockout stages. The tandem of Simone Fontecchio and Nico Mannion has been the main catalyst of Italy’s success, so far in the tournament. Fontecchio leads the team with 18.0 points per game, while the Golden State Warriors guard is chipping in 15.0 points and 5.0 assists per contest. Danilo Gallinari remains a key asset for Italy, but he’ll have to bounce back from a three-point game against Nigeria. Since scoring 18 points against Germany, Gallinari has not scored more than five points in any of the last two Italy games.
France will enter the knockout stages undefeated with a 3-0 record. It has already established itself as a huge threat to the rest of the field when Le Bleus took down Team USA in the opener, 83-76. After that, France beat the Czech Republic (97-77) and then Iran (79-62). France is feeding off its unforgiving defense that is limiting opponents to just below 72 points per game. Rudy Gobert’s presence in the middle has been wreaking havoc and capitalizing on the absence of the defensive three-seconds rule, making it so hard for opponents to score easy baskets at the rim. The backcourt pair of Evan Fournier and Nando de Colo is taking care of business offensively. Fournier and de Colo are averaging 17.3 and 13.3 points, respectively, each also shooting better than 40 percent from behind the arc. As a team, France is making 51 percent of its shots from the field and 37.7 percent from deep.
