The hard-working French won (85-70) on Sunday against Cyprus during the fourth day of the group stage of Euro 2025. A victory which allows them to consolidate first place in their group.
Mission accomplished! In pain, jostled for a long time, the players of the French basketball team finally imposed themselves (85-70), Sunday, against Cyprus during the fourth day of the group stage of Euro 2025 which was held at the Arena Futuroscope, near Poitiers.
If everything was not perfect in form, the essential is there for the new coach of the Blues Frédéric Fauthoux who launches his mandate with two successes after the victory, Thursday, against this same opponent (59-75).
With four victories in as many days, and eight points in the bag, Axel Bouteille’s partners (15 points and 7 rebounds) consolidate their first place in the group and are quickly approaching the next Euro – scheduled from August 27 to September 14 in Latvia, Finland, Poland and Cyprus. They could have even officially secured their ticket, but Bosnia-Herzegovina’s victory against Croatia (110-90) a little later delayed the deadline.
“The week was generally positive: we won both matches, that was the goal. We started with a group that we wanted to discover, some had never played at this level. That’s the difficulty of these windows: winning and seeing players that we want to watch evolve” in the future, Fauthoux stressed.
Among the satisfactions of this international window, the successful baptism of fire for the nugget Nolan Traoré. At only 18 years old, the playmaker behaved like an old hand. After scoring 10 points and providing 3 assists on Thursday, he finished the game on Sunday with 8 points and 3 assists.
But the Blues are deprived of a large part of the Olympic vice-champions due to calendar incompatibilities with the NBA and the Euroleague – only point guard Andrew Albicy is present -, have long scared themselves.
After a one-sided start to the match where the Blues recite their basketball and quickly and widely widen the gap (39-20, 23rd), the machine seizes up. The shooting address becomes more than questionable, especially from long distance. The Cypriots take advantage of it, punish in counterattack and gradually catch up their delay. During the 3rd quarter the gap is only 6 lengths (53-47, 26th).
Messy in the game, the Blues, who only have a few common training sessions in their legs, rush too much, multiply the ball losses and offer too many possibilities to Cyprus. It was not until the last minute of play and an interception followed by a dunk by Yoan Makoundou (83-70, 39th) that the French camp was definitively liberated.
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