Miguel Méndez: "The key will be to be the best possible team"

MADRID, 8 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The women's national basketball coach, Miguel Méndez, analyzed Spain's rivals for this summer's Eurobasket 2023, after the draw held this Wednesday in Ljubljana, and warned of the danger of Group A and the need to bring a "solid" team that compete at your "level".

"The draw has cleared up some important doubts for us. The first, the headquarters, which will force us to make one more trip, the transfer. It would have been more comfortable to already be in Slovenia," he said in statements provided by the Spanish Basketball Federation (FEB) after the draw.

"We are going to have the idea with which we started working from the first day, which is to form a team based on availability when the League ends, and from there to be the best possible team, which I think will be the We are going to be a team distributing options and responsibilities, and our first idea will be for this team to behave as a solid group, which is what will make us compete at our level", he added.

Spain was framed with Greece, Montenegro and Latvia and will host Tel Aviv in the event that will also be held in Slovenia from June 15 to 25. "There are four groups of a very similar level, quite even. In a long championship, the first game is always the most dangerous, because it is the moment to arrive, the nerves, the anxiety," he said.

"The last Eurobasket we played, in 2021, the first game in Valencia was a defeat against Belarus that somewhat marked the future of the competition, the team was not at their level, this is what always worries about the first game. In We have this case with Latvia, which is a rival to take into account, with very experienced players, who have been playing in the Euroleague for years, two stars like Steinberga and Laksa, two of the best players in Europe in their positions. They will make things very difficult, they are the group's most important rival," he added.

In addition, the Galician coach, who has been 10 out of 10 in victories since he took charge of the team in September 2021, analyzed Montenegro and Greece. "Montenegro has a player above the rest, known in Spain, now in Zaragoza, Gatling, a powerful center, very paint, to score under the basket. The rest is a very young team and will depend a lot on what they can do her," he said.

"It is a very veteran team, with players with a lot of experience, a high average age. Two players stand out, one also well-known from our LF Endesa League, Fasoula, who is having perhaps the best season of her career, and with Spanou she forms a A very balanced pair of centers, two completely different and experienced players. It is another rival to take into account, like practically all of them because it will be an important medium-high level championship," he said about Greece.