Lithuania and Russia head into their semi-final showdown on the back of narrow wins, the former edging Croatia on Friday to remain unbeaten at the EuroBasket and the latter scraping their way past France to reach the last four for the first time in 10 years.
The Lithuanians, gold medalists in 2003 when the tournament was staged in Sweden, are undefeated but they will not be as rested as their opponents who played the French on Thursday.
“That’s okay,” said Lithuania power forward Darius Songaila. “They’ve had two days to worry about this game, while we have to just go out and play.”
Against Croatia, Songaila and Co. did not play at their best but still managed to win and that’s the sign of a championship-calibre team.
However, Russia can also play much better than they did against France as well, and now that the pressure is off of reaching the semi-finals for the first time in 10 years, David Blatt’s team will be loose and confident.
source : eurobasket2007.org
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