With a clenched fist, Vincent Collet glanced at his staff before heading to the Turkish bench to greet his counterpart. Much too early… If France ended up beating Turkey in extra time this Saturday in Berlin (87-86), their coach thought the deal was in the bag as soon as regulation time expired. “I thought we had won, I thought we were only a point behind, I don’t know why”, admitted Collet after this round of 16 Eurobasket to advise against cardiac.
And no… Rudy Gobert’s dunk 2.5 seconds from the end simply allowed the Blues to equalize at 77-77. But it was already enormous, as the French were badly embarked in this match which they had previously completely controlled, to the point of counting up to 16 points in advance.
The problem of bullet losses, again and again
“It’s probably the craziest scenario I’ve known,” admits Collet. “Our eternal sin since the start of this tournament has been the loss of balls. This weakness is really a hard-to-bear vulnerability, especially in a cleaver match. It has to stop because there can’t be a sequel, regardless of the opponent. »
It will be either Serbia or Italy, who face off on Sunday to join the Blues in the quarter-finals.