Preview: Poland v GB

13th November 2019

Temi Fagbenle in action v Hungary during the summer’s EuroBasket Women

Details

Poland v GB

FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2021 Qualifiers

Thursday, November 14, 5:15pm

Aqua Zdroj Arena

Intro

GB return to the court for the first time since their historic fourth place finish at the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2019, facing Poland in Walbrzych on Thursday evening.

The squad will be looking to continue the momentum built in Latvia and Serbia as they tackle the EuroBasket 2021 qualifying double-header v Poland and Belarus this week.

The opposition: Poland

Poland come into the game on the back of a third-place finish in Group B of the EuroBasket 2019 Qualifiers. Turkey and Belarus both got the better of the side, booking their places at last summer’s tournament. Poland’s only wins during the campaign came against Estonia.

The team’s biggest threat throughout the qualifiers was Agnieszka Kaczmarczyk, as the power forward averaged 9.3 points and 5.5 rebounds throughout the campaign. Paulina Misiek and Weronika Gajda both also averaged over nine points per game.

TEAM NEWS

A roster of 14 players was named ahead of the team’s departure to Poland last week, with each player hoping to make the final 12 ahead of Thursday’s game. The players from the summer’s EuroBasket squad have been joined in camp by Chantel Charles and Nicolette Fong Lyew Quee.

COACH’S THOUGHTS

GB’s Head Coach, Chema Buceta, is aware of the threat Poland pose in the opening game:

“We’re beginning a new campaign with this game against Poland and it’s important for us to begin as strong as possible to increase our chances to qualify for the next EuroBasket.

We have to follow a similar strategy that we have in the past, this means taking things game-by-game, playing together, supporting each other, playing good defence and respecting the opponent.

Poland is a team with a lot of international experience with many Polish clubs present in European competitions. They will play very aggressive defence and display physical effort.

We will need to fight as much as them and play very wise in offense in order to be able to score. We also have to play very good defence, which was one of our main weapons in the last EuroBasket. We must play together and trust each other to keep up the positive spirit within the team.”

How to watch

Supporters can watch the game live via FIBA’s YouTube channel here or follow GB Basketball’s social updates. The live stats for the game are also available here.