Croatia Eye Place In Last Eight

Croatia can all but secure themselves a spot in the quarter-finals of the 2007 EuroBasket if they can knock off Israel in each team's first game in Group E of the qualifying round later today.

After beating Spain on Wednesday in their last opening group game, Croatia enter the contest with a 2-0 record - tied with Russia - while Israel are back at 0-2.

Zvidik Sherf's side desperately need a victory to boost their chances of even making the final eight.

Last Time Out: Israel beat Serbia 87-83 to advance to the qualifying round while Croatia shocked world champions and EuroBasket hosts Spain 85-84 on a three-pointer in the waning seconds and a blocked shot at the buzzer.

Key Match-up: Yaniv Green had a huge game against Serbia, collecting 26 points and 12 rebounds. But he will need another great game if Israel plan to neutralise Croatia's low-post presence, which is dominated by Mario Kasun, who is the team's second-leading scorer with 12.0 points per game. Shref's side though will be shorthanded inside as 2.08m center Erez Marckovich is to miss out with a broken nose.

Statistics: Israel have turned the ball over an average of 17 times in their three Group A games while Croatia have forced their opponents into 15 turnovers a contest. Israel must do a better job handling the ball.

X-Factor: Israel's backcourt must defend the three-point shot - something they traditionally don't do - as their opponents are averaging 22 attempts from long-range per game. But if Croatia's marksmen - who converted 42% of their threes in their two victories but just 25% in their only loss - get going, it could be a blowout.

Sounding Off: Croatian guard Marko Tomas, who made the game-winning shot against Spain, yesterday reflected: "The first game, we lost against Latvia and everyone had their heads down.

After yesterday's game, we got some confidence. We're first in the group. We've got more confidence for tomorrow's game."

source : eurobasket2007.org