Basketball: the French lose to Serbia in the final of Euro-2021

Published on : 06/27/2021 – 10:49 PM

The black series continues. The French basketball players lost in the Euro-2021 final to Serbia 63-54 on Sunday (June 27) in Valencia, Spain. They thus failed for the fifth consecutive time in the quest for a third European title.

Money again, and it was not the expected metal. At the final buzzer, the faces of Endy Miyem’s teammates were very logically closed, hands on hips and heads bowed contrasting with the joy of the Serbs, crowned for the second time in their history as European champions, each time dominating the France in the final.

For the players of Valérie Garnier, this fifth silver medal in a row after 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019 really has a very bitter taste, as they had set themselves the goal of winning the European title and finally succeeding the “12 gold girls” from 2001 and to the “Braqueuses” from 2009.

It is not yet for this year, the fault of a failed final, taken by the wrong end by French women failing in attack, like the sparkling and molten captain Endy Miyem in the semi-finals against Belarus, but extinct. Sunday by the suffocating defense of the Serbs.

In the final, the Blue fell on a formidable team from Serbia, which relied in part on the team that had beaten France in the Euro final in 2015 (five of the twelve Serbian players in 2021 were present in Budapest in 2015).

Take revenge in Tokyo

This defeat is all the more annoying that all the lights were green for the French. Unlike 2019, the French squad was complete, no player had to give up Euro-2021, started in France in Strasbourg.

Even the injury of the titular leader from the first match against Croatia had been perfectly managed, thanks to the entry of Alix Duchet and the versatility of the other full-backs, Marine Johannès and Sarah Michel.

In addition, the French seemed to master their subject like never before, very rarely if not almost not worried in their journey until the seventh last consecutive four in a European Championship, a series started in 2009 during the last coronation of the Blue.

For the staff it will be necessary to succeed in remobilizing and for the players the rebound is expected very quickly, because the summer of 2021 is very far from over for the Blue. After this first half dedicated to Euro-2021, according to the formula put forward by coach Valérie Garnier when launching the preparation, they will tackle the other summer objective, namely the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Placed in a pool with the invincible Americans, six-fold reigning Olympic champions and once again big favorites for the title in Japan, the French will first have to get out of this group to reach the quarter-finals, before dreaming of a possible podium at the Olympics, on which the “Braqueuses” were mounted in 2012 in London, with the silver medal.

With AFP