Italy's road to the 2023 Basketball World Cup begins in St. Petersburg. Tomorrow the Azzurri will challenge Russia in the first match of the first qualifying window for the tournament that will be held in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The second match, the last in 2021, will be against Holland next Monday at the Assago Forum.
For the match against Russia, the captain will be Amedeo Tessitori, now a veteran after participating in the 2019 World Cup and especially in the Tokyo Games after winning the pre-Olympic tournament in Belgrade in the final against Serbia: "For me it is an honor to wear one more once the Azzurro - said Tessitori - and it is doubly so. We did a few trainings but everyone did their utmost. Our journey towards the Japanese Olympics started right from the world qualifiers in 2018 and we will do everything to repeat ourselves and therefore return at Paris 2024. Without forgetting the EuroBasket 2022, the great appointment of next summer ". Russia changed coach a few weeks ago, replacing Bazarevich with Serbian Lukic, head coach in Russia at Nizhny Novgorod.The certainties are captain Semen Antonov and Vladimir Ivlev of CSKA, Ivan Strebkov of Nizhny and Evgeny Valiev of Kazan.
Meanwhile, today the international federation (Fiba) announced the partnership with Eleven Italia for the coverage of international events up to 2025. The agreement also includes the matches of the Azzurri to the world qualifiers, with the matches of the first "window" against Russia and countries Basses that will be broadcast on Sky Sport Arena.