Preview: GB v Latvia
Details
GB v Latvia
FIBA Women’s EuroBasket
Thursday 27th June, 16:30 tip
Arena Riga
Intro
GB Women begin their 2019 FIBA Women’s EuroBasket campaign with a game against the hosts Latvia in Riga this evening.
The team come into the game in great form, adding a brilliant display v Spain and a win over Sweden to their back to back wins over Canada as they concluded their preparations last week.
The opposition: LATVIA
Tonight’s opponents went 5-3 during their extensive preparations for EuroBasket 2019.
Early defeats to Spain and Turkey were added to with a four win streak versus China, Hungary, Boznia & Herzegovina and Czech Republic, before their warm up games concluded with a loss to Slovenia.
Latvia are a squad used to playing at major events, finishing in the 5th-6th classification game at the 2017 EuroBasket and also reaching the group stages of last year’s World Cup.
Team’s thoughts
Ahead of the game, Rachael Vanderwal talked about the atmosphere expected within Arena Riga:
“It’s going to be super exciting. Obviously they’re the host nation so the atmosphere is going to be crazy, really loud and it’ll all be for Latvia, although we’ll have some of our family and friends there. It’s going to be amazing and we’re really looking forward to it. Hopefully we’ll pull out the win”
The player, who will be hoping to celebrate her birthday with a win tonight, also recognises the strength of Latvia:
“They’re always a tough team and we’ve always had great games against them in the past. We expect no different this time. They have some key experienced players but they also have some younger players coming up so it’s gonna be a defensive game. They have some really good shooters as well so we’ll have to be careful but if our defence is good we should be good tomorrow.”
How to watch
Tonight’s game is being streamed online via livebasketball.tv
Supporters can also stay up to date during this afternoon’s game via GB’s social channels.