Serbia Plays Today! Another Team Change: Alimpijević Names 12 Players for World Cup Qualifiers
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The day before Serbia's clash against Iceland, the national team coach announced that Nikola Đurišić would be out of the squad due to a muscle strain. The recovery timeline for the Crvena zvezda Meridianbet basketball player has also been revealed.
"Đurišić will not be in the squad. He has a strain, and due to potential risk, he's out of the team. He's a guy who brought great energy, found his rhythm, and had a fantastic preparation period," the coach stated.
Consequently, Dejan Davidovac, who missed the second friendly match against France, has returned to the team. The Serbian national team will feature the following lineup:
Nemanja Dangubić, Nikola Jović, Stefan Momirov, Ognjen Dobrić, Nikola Jokić, Arijan Lakić, Marko Gudurić, Nikola Tanasković, Dejan Davidovac, Aleksa Avramović, Nikola Milutinov, and Jovan Novak.
Where to Watch Serbia vs. Iceland?
You can catch the live TV broadcast of the match on RTS 1 and TV Arena Sport Premium 1 channels, starting at 8 PM. Following this game, the Eagles face an even more crucial encounter – against the Italian national team in Pesaro.
Iceland's Unique Basketball Style
"So far, this entire period of preparation has gone excellently. We achieved everything we aimed for during the friendly matches, and we're satisfied. Now comes the main event; everything we've done is pointless if we don't perform well now. I expect the peak of our positive momentum to be in the upcoming games. We're not thinking about Italy until we've dealt with Iceland, nor about the November window," Dušan Alimpijević said in the pre-match announcement, adding:
"People are aware that Iceland has defeated both Italy and Lithuania. They are a team that scores a lot of points. If you let this team get into a rhythm, what happened to Italy and Lithuania could happen to us. They are professionals, full of responsibility; we're not thinking about Italy. Iceland plays a specific style of basketball that aligns with modern basketball models, featuring a lot of open-court play. Our main task will be to stop their early offense... they look for shots, they shoot a lot of threes. If we had to describe them in two characteristics, it would be early offense and three-point shooting. If we can stop that, we shouldn't have difficulties."
France Was a "Different Dimension"
Ahead of the official qualification matches, Serbia played two friendly games against the French national team. In the first encounter, held in Belgrade Arena, Serbia triumphed with a score of 90:87.
In the return leg in Orleans, France won a dramatic finish 91:90. In that match, Nikola Jokić stood out with 34 points and 13 rebounds, while Nikola Jović added 13 points.
"France is truly completely different from anything we'll face in these windows. We played against probably the most athletically powerful team in Europe, they have NBA players. They were two friendlies, but everything about them was anything but friendly. We tried to manage minutes well in the second game, and it will certainly help us a lot because that intensity will serve us well. In terms of play, and especially athleticism, it's something different from what awaits us."
Standings Update
In the current qualification campaign for Group J, Turkey holds the top spot with a perfect 6-0 record, while Italy is second with a 5-1 record. Serbia is in third place with four wins and two losses (4-2).
VIDEO Great support for Serbia: Kalinić, Bogdanović, Marinković, Petrušev, Mitrović...
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