Ten months ago, the EuroBasket 2025 qualifiers (which will be held in Cyprus) began, with the Greek national team (under the debut of Vassilis Spanoulis as coach) achieving two consecutive wins against the Czech Republic (72-64 at home) and the Netherlands (74-72 away).
After a long break, the windows for the national teams have resumed, and the Greek team faces a tough challenge today in London against Great Britain, which holds a 1-1 record (having defeated the Netherlands 98-94 at home and lost 90-82 away to the Czech Republic).
The issue for Vassilis Spanoulis is that despite the commitments of the national teams, Euroleague games are still scheduled, which means that many of the top players will be absent. The national coach commented:
“Great Britain is a very athletic team. Nowadays, there are good players and good teams everywhere, and we need to be prepared for these games. The concept of the windows is about progression and giving young players a chance to showcase their abilities. We always aim to win; that’s our philosophy. We aim to win to qualify for EuroBasket. Here, we must make sacrifices for the national team.”
The full squad: Vassilis Toliopoulos, Michalis Lountzis, Vassilis Mouratos, Dimitris Moraitis, Naz Mitrou-Long, Stelios Poulanitis, Neoklis Avdalas, Nikos Hugas, Giannis Kouzeloglou, Lefteris Mantzoukas, Vangelis Zougris, and Antonis Karagiannidis.
The two teams will face each other again a few days later, on Sunday (24/11, 18:30) in Thessaloniki at the PAOK Sports Arena.
Head-to-head with Great Britain
Pre-Olympic Tournament 20/05/1984 (Paris), Greece – Great Britain 104-106
Pre-Olympic Tournament 06/07/1988 (Rotterdam), Greece – Great Britain 101-72
Friendly Match 08/08/2013 (Heraklion), Greece – Great Britain 95-62
Friendly Match 08/08/2017 (Patras), Greece – Great Britain 92-64
Friendly Match 18/08/2017 (London), Greece – Great Britain 72-68
Friendly Match 19/08/2017 (London), Greece – Great Britain 88-84
World Cup Qualifiers 24/11/2017 (Leicester), Greece – Great Britain 95-92
World Cup Qualifiers 25/02/2018 (Heraklion), Greece – Great Britain 75-70
World Cup Qualifiers 25/11/2021 (Newcastle), Greece – Great Britain 69-78
World Cup Qualifiers 30/06/2022 (Larissa), Greece – Great Britain 93-71
EuroBasket Group Stage 05/09/2022 (Milan), Great Britain – Greece 77-93
Standings
- Greece 2-0
- Czech Republic 1-1
- Great Britain 1-1
- Netherlands 0-2
Schedule
Czech Republic vs. Netherlands: 19:00
Great Britain vs. Greece 21:30 (ERT3)
