In the latest match of the opening day in World Championship, at Guangzhou Gymnasium, in Guangzhou, the favourites to win the group will face off against the team, that many consider being one of the worst of the tournament. To have more insights on this FIBA World Cup match, in which Spain will face off against Tunisia, please check out the preview below.
Spain
This will probably be the first time when Spain is not considered to be a Top 3 team for FIBA international tournament. Of course, there are some absences in their roster knowing that Alex Abrines, Pau Gasol, Sergio Rodriguez, Nikola Mirotic won’t compete in this championship, but many teams are dealing with same issues so there should be no excuses in this situation.
Spain’s roster for FIBA WC 2019:
PG: R. Rubio; Q. Colom;
SG: S. Lull; P. Ribas;
SF: R. Fernandez; J. Hernangomez; X. Rabaseda;
PF: V. Claver; J. Beiran; P. Oriola;
C: M. Gasol; W. Hernangomez.
This is definitely a solid roster for any competition, but knowing that many of these guys are not top tier superstars, this roster will have to show incredible teamplay in order to achieve something similar to previous year’s achievements. Spain will come into Saturday’s match as a heavy favourite and there is no question about that. This Spain roster, as friendly matches have shown, will play slower and will try to use their big man as much as possible.
Tunisia
This Tunisia team is not as bad as some people might expect. They have a pretty solid roster this year, including NBA player Salah Mejri and former Maccabi’s guard Michael Roll. Tunisia were placed in 14th spot in FIBA’s latest power rankings for the tournament. Of course, the match against Spain will be the toughest one in the group, but it’s better to do it at the start of the tournament, learn from it and move forward to other matches.
Tunisia’s roster for FIBA WC 2019:
PG: O. Abada; N. Knioua’
SG: M. Roll; O. Mouhli; M. El Mabrouk;
SF: Z. Chennoufi; R. Slimane;
PF: M. Hadidane; M. Ben Rodhamne;
C: S. Mejri; M. Abbassi; M. Ghyaza.
Mejri and Roll will be the leaders of the team and most of its success will be defined by performances of these two guys. Tunisia is also one of the slowest team’s of the tournament because they lack good perimeter shooters and spend a lot of time in order to create the best shot possible. Tunisia doesn’t have a lot of chances to win against Spain, but this will be a great match to learn from and do their best in other ones. Tunisia have very good chances to reach the second stage and this Saturday’s match shouldn’t mean a lot.
Spain vs Tunisia H2H
These teams met last time in 2017. Spain were much stronger and won the game with 71:45 result.
Article image is taken from http://www.fiba.basketball/