The men's national team of Ukraine continues its preparations for the August 2023 World Cup qualification matches against Italy and Iceland, as well as for the final part of EuroBasket 2022.

 

 

The team of Ainars Bagatskis finished the first stage of the training in Riga and went to Istanbul, where they will play three control matches as part of the preparatory tournament:

 

 

August 11

Ukraine — Turkey

 

 

August 12

Ukraine — Poland

 

 

August 13

Ukraine — Slovenia

 

 

14 basketball players who will take part in future control matches left Riga for Istanbul. Among them are four Prometeyplayers: Denys  Lukashov, Illia Sydorov, Issuf Sanon and Ivan Tkachenko.

 

 

The head coach of the Ukrainian National team, Ainars Bagatskis, commented on the upcoming control matches:

 

 

"We immediately have the opportunity to compare ourselves with Turks, whose line-up has been created perfectly, with Slovenians, who will probably have the best roster, and, of course, the Poles, who are definitely not a gift. Taking everything into account, I'll probably limit players at some point since no one is ready to play right now. The maximum is 20 minutes. Of course, this will not happen in official matches. But now, from time to time, in the interest of common sense, we will play with time limits, in order to protect players from injuries.

 

 

I want to see teamwork and communication in these matches. Everything else will be fine. I don't know what the result of the friendly games will be, but the main thing is that we do what we did in training sessions, polish it. I want to stronger emphasise the quality of the performance of what we have been preparing."