EuroBasket 2007 – Groups

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Tough groups and promising championship!!




The missing team in group A is the winner of next summer's additional qualifying tournament



MADRID (EuroBasket 2007) - Spain conquered the world this summer at the FIBA World Championship and now they will try to cement their place as Europe's best next summer but familiar foes Croatia stand in their way.

Spain, Croatia, Latvia and Portugal were drawn in an intriguing EuroBasket 2007 Group B on Saturday.

The Spanish, who won this summer's world title, and Croatia engaged in a colossal quarter-final battle two years ago in Belgrade.

Spain won that game 101-85 in overtime, a result that left Croatia's then coach Neven Spahija and his players shell-shocked.

They complained bitterly about the disparity in fouls - 38 for the Croatians to just 14 for the Spanish.

Croatia would have qualified for the FIBA World Championship with a win in that game and though they still had a chance by finishing in the top six, they lost their next two classification games.

Group A at EuroBasket 2007 will also have a rematch of a quarter-final two years ago when Panagiotis Yannakis and his defending EuroBasket champions Greece take on Russia.

The Greeks fought back from a big deficit in their last eight clash against the Russians in Belgrade, and then followed with wins over France and Germany to capture the European crown.

Greece defeated the United States to reach this year's FIBA World Championship final but lost to Spain.

Serbia and the winner of next summer's additional qualifying tournament are also in that pool.

The other two groups are arguably the toughest.

EuroBasket 2005's beaten finalists Germany and their superstar Dirk Nowitzki, 2003 champions Lithuania, emerging Turkey and the Czech Republic make up Group C while 2005 bronze medalists France, Slovenia, Italy and Poland make up Group D.

Croatia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Portugal all qualified for next year's tournament this summer while the other teams were given automatic places after playing at the FIBA World Championship.
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