France
Spain
Authors of a very strange Eurobasket, the Blues left with a new medal around their necks, silver, after their defeat in the final against the eternal rival Spanish. “Spain played very well, they did everything they intended to do, things we anticipated but couldn’t prevent. We knew they would be very aggressive against Thomas (Heurtel ) and Evan (Fournier). We knew they would play long possessions in attack to wear us down and they succeeded: our defensive pressure was not like Friday. We waited 17 minutes to put that pressure back on. is not given the weapons to change the fate of this match.”
Summary of the game
The march was too high for France against Spain in this final of Euro 2022 basketball. The Blues logically lost against La Roja (88-76). In the first period, the French went close to the correctional while La Roja seemed in an exceptional evening. At the end of the first quarter, the Blues are trailing 23-14 after losing five balls and having a huge lack of skill with a 1/6 three-pointer. Opposite the address was far from being a problem and especially for Juancho Hernangomez who concluded the first act with a 6/7 at three points while he was shooting before this meeting at 30% in this exercise. Despite trailing by 21 points a few minutes from the end of the first period, France, as usual, gave absolutely nothing away and finished this half on a high note. They melted the advantage of La Roja to return to the locker room with a deficit of 10 points. The start of the third quarter comforted the Blues in a possible crazy comeback. But in this quarter largely dominated by the French, the gap has not narrowed that much. Indeed, before starting the last ten minutes, they were still relegated to nine points. It was in this last quarter that the Blues missed the boat. After a technical foul by Sergio Scariolo, Evan Fournier goes to the free throw line and converts. France then find themselves with possession and can get closer to two lengths if they convert this action but the Blues will fall back into their traps by losing a ball. This action could have been the turning point but ultimately only served to establish Spanish domination in this final which ended with a 12-point lead. La Roja claim their fifth European title.