“You have to play the tournaments first”.It is indeed a good old phrase that was filled with life again yesterday. Serbia, top favorite before the tournament and brutally strong in preparation (7-0), failed in the round of 16 in Finland, which was demonstrated a few days ago in the Finnish tampere according to all the rules of the art of world champion Germany (61:91).

From the point of view of the Serbs,86:92,who have been waiting for a large international title since 2002. The Serbian media landscape reacted shocked,there was talk of the “upset of the century”,while coach svetislav Pesic provided a much more sober analysis: “We did not underestimate Finland,that is a fantastic team,” said the 76-year-old. “The game was decided on the offensive board and they really deserved it. It was a great game and if someone believes that we took the game onto the shoulder, that was not the case.”

First of all, that would be obvious.With Bogdan Bogdanovic, the second most crucial player was missing after Nikola Jokic, against Finland Aleksa Avramovic (heel) could only play in pain, the same was true for the captain of Red star belgrade Ognjen Dobric. Big Man tristan Vukcevic could not be used and Nikola Jovic fought with a virus, didn’t train with the team at all.

Something like that can hardly be coped with for a team, not even for the team with the best player in the world. The three-time NBA-MVP Nikola Jokic recorded 33 points (9/13 FG, 14/19 ft) and eight rebounds in 34 minutes, but the Serbs lost the minutes with their star (-7). The truth also includes that the Finns were a very uncomfortable Matchup for Serbia.

In contrast to the Germans, the Serbian bigs are rather sluggish, which Finland played with Lauri Markkanen, Mikael Jantunen and Youngster Miikka “Slim Jesus” Muurinen. Suddenly they were the team with speed and shooting, jokic was always a step too slow with his close -outs, which the Finns mercilessly punished.

Again and again the Finns pulled the Serbian bigs outside, which is why the