The two rival teams met previously in a bronze medal match at the European Championships. In 2009, the Belarusians lost with a gap of 7 points. Six years later, the teams faced each other again; Spainiards were considered to be the favourites, showing good form over recent matches.
Our girls looked as if they were performing well in the first half, managing to win the first ten-minute section with score of 18:12. In the next ten minutes the Spanish head coach, Lucas Mondelo, evoked a response from his team, resulting in the Spaniards’ making four perfect shots in a row. In the middle of the game we had lost 4 points to the opponents who took advantage of the goal difference to lead by 16 points at the end of the match.
At the current championship, the Belarus national team did extremely well during the first group round, winning against Italy 85:76, Poland 65:49, Turkey 67:52 and Greece 82:57. However, it suffered defeats during the second round from the Czech Republic (70:73), Montenegro (72:77) and France (58:64). In the quarterfinals the Belarusians claimed victory over the Lithuanians in a tough struggle 68:66, but lost to the Serbians in the final qualification match 72:74. According to head coach Anatoly Buyalsky, though his squad failed to claim a medal, they achieved their main goal, the right to play in the pre-Olympic qualification matches next summer.
By Igor Grishin
