The Serbian national team showed its strength and eliminated its Canadian counterpart from the semi-finals of the World Cup For basketball Friday in Manila, after defeating it 95-86 on its way to reaching the final for the second time in its history.
The Serbian national team, which is still searching for the title for the first time in its history since the end of the five-time defending champions Yugoslavia, will face the winner between the United States and Germany, who will face each other later.
The final match will be held on Sunday, noting that Serbia had previously lost the final to the United States in 2014, and the Serbian team violated many expectations about the superiority of the Canadian team, armed with NBA stars, to advance to the final.
Serbia dominated the match from beginning to end, through a tight defense that greatly confused the Canadians, not to mention the Serbians’ strong superiority under the basket in attack and defense, as the Canadian team struggled to find its attacking system, while its defense was characterized by recklessness in the face of its opponent’s team play.
Canada’s Spanish national team coach, Jordi Fernandez, said after the match: “Today we lacked physical strength. We tried to fight, but the Serbian national team showed superiority in this area.”
He continued: “I am proud of my team players in the end. Today we played against a team that shot 62 percent of all distances and we lost because we did not defend well. We have one match and we must play it with all our might to come away with a medal from the tournament.”
The Serbian team also shot an impressive percentage from the three-point line (45 percent) and from all distances (62 percent), while Serbia’s toughness, athleticism, and physicality led to many Canadian players getting into foul trouble early.
Serbia has been very focused from the beginning
From the first moments of the match, the Serbian team began to be extremely focused, as Eugen Dobrić gave it a 5-1 lead after a successful hat-trick, and despite the Canadians’ attempts to catch their breath, they faced great difficulty in stopping Serbia’s attack, which ended the first quarter with a 23-15 lead.
The Serbs, who were missing their most prominent star and the best player in the American Basketball League last season, Nikola Jokic, continued their brilliance in the second quarter from all distances, raining down the Canadian basket with a barrage of three-point shots, and their collective performance caused a major defensive loss for the North American team.
Serbia extended the gap to 15 points in the second quarter, which ended 52-39 for Serbia, and Canada’s attempts were limited to individual efforts by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. All his attempts to reduce the score failed, as every basket he or one of his teammates scored was met with a direct basket from the Serbs, who did not allow the difference to fall below the ten-point threshold.
The Serbian national team ultimately succeeded in winning for the second time since their first participation as an independent country in 2006 in the World Cup in Japan.
Once again, top scorer Bogdan Bogdanovic was the best scorer for Serbia with 23 points, Nikola Milutinov added 16 points and 10 rebounds, Dobrić 16 points, Marko Goodric 12 points, while RJ Barrett scored 23 points for the loser, and Gilgeous-Alexander and Dillon Brooks each scored 16 points. .
