Sport24.az
Evren Alkaya, the head coach of the Azerbaijan U-18 women's basketball team, assessed the training camp held in Belarus. Sport24.az reports that the specialist made a statement to "Report" about this.
He spoke about the test matches: "We played against strong opponents. Both games against the Belarus U-14 team were good. Of course, we were able to win because our physical indicators were better due to age. We played against three teams that are in the top ranks of the Belarus U-18 championship - "Horizont", "Rguor" and "Viktoriya". They were very serious and ready opponents. They caused us difficulties because they were both physically good and experienced. We lost to "Horizont" and "Viktoriya" because we were not in full form. Although the games were very fast-paced. "Rguor"'s basketball players were physically very strong. It was a valuable gathering, we identified our weaknesses. The new players we invited from U-16 have also adapted to the team."
The Turkish head coach emphasized that they want to be in the top "3" in the upcoming European Championship: "We will go to Lithuania in 10 days for the European Championship. On July 4, we will face Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a very serious team, they have a 30-40 year old women's basketball culture. They have formed a very good team. Then we will face Ukraine, Lithuania, Kosovo and Iceland. I hope that we will take one of the first 3 places in the group and get a chance to play in the next stage. We trust our players, they adapt to each other. It takes time for them to fully form. The Azerbaijan U-18 national team will participate in such a competition for the first time in history. I hope we will win."
It should be noted that the national team played 6 test matches in the training camp in Belarus. The team won against local teams "Rguor" (84:39), "Rguor 2" (80:30), and lost both matches against "Horizont" (40:68, 53:65) and "Viktoriya" (49:53, 62:68).
The gathering aimed to prepare for the games of the B division of the European Championship, which will be held in Alitus and Vilnius, Lithuania, between July 4-13.
