BELGRADE, Feb. 8 -- Captain Shao Ting made a brilliant shot plus a free throw at the end of the thrilling game, helping China stun European champion Spain 64-62 in the Olympic women's basketball qualifying tournament here on Saturday.
The win guaranteed an Olympic ticket for the Chinese team to Tokyo 2020 as China had beaten Britain here on Thursday in the opening round of the four-team group which also has South Korea.
China coach Xu Limin told Xinhua that he was surprised, and didn't expect such outcome of the game, but had confidence in the team's past three years of hard work.
Analyzing the game, Xu said that it was a very exciting match. "Compared with the previous game on Thursday, despite the shooting percentage wasn't satisfactory, we performed well in defense and rebounding, with nearly 20 rebounds more than the opponents."
He described his feeling as "lucky" for beating one of the best teams in the world, praising their ability to close the 15-point gap in the final quarter.
"Other teams do not have this kind of ability," he admitted.
Xu noted that the game showed the improvement of his team.
Center Li Yueru, who achieved a double-double (13 points and 15 rebounds), was more than modest about her performance. She told Xinhua that the team managed to defeat Spain by being prepared, persistently fighting, and showing to the opponents their own style of play.
"We didn't expect that we could win, we just hoped to bring our best level into play. Although we made mistakes and had a lot of turnovers, I think we performed very well," she said.
Captain Shao Ting, who secured the victory in final seconds and stopped the amazing comeback of the opponents, admitted that her team was looking forward to this match as a learning opportunity and that only as "the game progressed, we found a chance to win this game, and we finally seized it".
"After this game, we are more focused on tomorrow's game and hope to learn from South Korea again and to play at our true level," Shao told Xinhua.
The Spanish team also praised the Chinese team, blaming the defeat on their weak start, catastrophic second quarter, and inability to break the match in the final seconds of the game.
Alba Torres said that her team did not bring the best decisions and had a poor first half, but in the end fought for every ball.
"China played a really good game, they found strength to punish us, and now it's up to us to analyze, and see what we can improve tomorrow," she said.
Spain coach Lucas Mondelo said that his team missed too many easy shots, which made them nervous in the second quarter, which they lost by 6-22.
"China was able to run and to play quicker, fast breaks and this built their confidence. The Chinese team played very hard defense, but had only two fouls in second quarter, which was almost impossible. I want to congratulate the Chinese team for qualifying for the Olympics" he said.
Chinese player Li Meng and coach Xu Limin said at the press conference that the victory came after hard work, and represents a vital experience for the improvement of the team.
"This is only a beginning for our team, not our final goal. The ticket is only a key to open our future," Li said.
Xu repeated that this was "a wonderful" game and a spectacle for all basketball fans.
"You know that we had a lot of difficulties. Originally, we were supposed to be the host in China, but then the venue was changed to Europe. Everybody knows about the novel coronavirus outbreak. So many difficulties we had to overcome in order to play very good today against Spain, in this kind of a hard situation. Thus, the victory is even more valuable to us," he summed up his feelings for international press.
"We still need a lot to improve in the next game (against South Korea), to fix our problems for the future games," he concluded.
总在买买买?为啥衣柜里的衣服越来越不经穿
从深港通看投资者微妙情绪
光大集团牵头 欲收购利物浦俱乐部
幸福的人,离不开这8个小习惯
外媒总结高大上有范儿的50个标准:你中几条
《北京折叠》郝景芳获雨果奖
旅行的意义:无论走到哪里,都是独特的经历
社交媒体是如何“毒害”我们下一代的
罗切特里约报假案 赞助商集体说分手
印度男子吃下40把刀 医生从胃中取出挽回生命
八旬老夫妻相守62年被迫分离 这张图看哭一片
脑震荡?希拉里健康状况引猜疑
减少浪费!用app买剩余食物吧
亚洲公司的网络安全世界最差
《感觉身体被掏空》为啥听哭中国加班狗
科学家告诉你:这样学才记得牢
情侣在公共场所做的20件最令对方难堪的事
全球四大银行合作研发新数字货币
东京奥运会日本拟用电子垃圾做奖牌
我的朋友那么多 为什么知心的却没几个
伴侣怀孕时,男性真的易出轨吗?
习大大谈G20:走向包容的世界经济
里约奥运会上,巴西观众为啥嘘声不断?
这些错误的学习习惯!你入坑了么?
你越来越怕热?都是空调把你惯的!
最讨人嫌科技产品使用习惯:你有几个?
送给20多岁的姑娘们:这十件事你一定要记住
时光机:我想告诉年轻时的自己
一眼识人,如何看清人的本性
宝宝出生哭声自带口音全球大不同
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |