Eurobasket - Preview: Croatia vs Ukraine

There is one team at EuroBasket 2013 that rode a seven-game winning streak into the quarter-finals and two teams whose players publicly admit that they did not expect to reach so far in the tournament.

Croatia is the side on a hot streak; Ukraine and Italy are the surprise packages in the showcase event of European basketball in Slovenia.

Croatia and Ukraine clash in the third quarter-final on Thursday at 17:45 CET and while the first are the runaway favourites, sport is far from an exact science and every underdog can have it's day - or 40 minutes, to be more precise - and turn a quarter-final into a memorable knock-out encounter.

The two sides met twice just a year ago, during the EuroBasket Qualification Round, and the Croats emerged victorious both home and away.

That first of the two games though, in Kiev on 21 August 2012, is a reference point for Ukraine today.

There is no coaching staff member or player on the Ukrainian team, whether they had stepped on the court that night or not, that does not recall the way Croatia prevailed 80-79 after overtime - on a Bojan Bogdanovic big triple six seconds from the end of the extra period.

Ukraine want to show to the whole of Europe how far they have come as a team in the last year, and are also free of the weight of expectation.

This is the first time the nation has reached the quarter-finals of a EuroBasket since earning independence from the former Soviet Union. Ukraine's last victory over Croatia during a EuroBasket dates back to 1997.

For Mike Fratello's troops, everything that happens from now on is a bonus.

Croatia on the other hand, will have the support of a sizeable travelling crowd in Stozice Arena on Thursday, but also tradition and the hopes of the entire nation on their shoulders.

"I have like 100 phone calls a day from Mostar (his birthplace in Bosnia and Herzegovina), from Zagreb or from Split for tickets," Bogdanovic said on the eve of the quarter-final.

"We did nice things here and finally there is basketball euphoria in Croatia."

Finally, because the last participation of this proud basketball nation in the semi-finals of a EuroBasket was in 1995, when the likes of Dino Radja, Arijan Komazec or Velimir Perasovic were still wearing the red-white chequered jersey.

Not a day goes by, ever since the Second Round, that Jasmin Repesa's men are not reminded of that historical fact and have to deal with the pressure of matching up to legends.

Stats Don't Lie: Croatia have a clear advantage on the glass, as they average a tournament-high 43.1 rebounds-per-game, and Ukraine only bring down 34.4 boards-per-encounter. Ukraine are the second-best among the quarter-finalists and third-best in the tournament on three-point shooting, as they convert 39.2 of their attempts from behind the arc, despite the fact they take an amazingly high 24.3 triples-per-game. Croatia attempt 22.4 three-pointers on average and hit 34.8% of them.

Key Match-Up: Bojan Bogdanovic vs. Sergii Gladyr. The two wingers lead their respective teams in scoring and there is a good reason for that. Although the Croat star is a bit bigger, their repertoire is similar, in that they can shoot from any distance with remarkable ease but also put the ball on the floor, take any opponent off the dribble and finish at the rim.

They Say:

Croatia player Bojan Bogdnanovic: "This is the beginning of EuroBasket for us. This is a knock out game, and the main thing is that we are not underestimating Ukraine, because we played against them in qualification. They are missing two players, [Oleksiy] Pecherov and [Artur] Drozdov but I think that they are stronger now because they can run as a younger team."

Ukraine player Oleksandr Lypovyy: "We played against Croatia as equals at home [in the Qualification Round] and suffered an unfortunate defeat at the end because of Bogdanovic's three-pointer. However, we know that we can play this team and win. We have to stop their leaders, [Ante] Tomic and Bogdanovic, so a lot will depend on myself, Maksym [Pustozvonov] and Dmytro Gliebov and our defence on Bogdanovic."