No stars but a stifling defensive collective and an unparalleled athletic potential on the continent. Thanks in particular to a large second period, the Blues won in front of Giannis Antetokounmpo Giannis on Sunday in Athens (92-77) and can now turn to the Eurobasket which will start in a few days in Poland.
In their luggage, five victories in as many preparation matches, concluded by a final smile and a good rise in power in the face of another pretender of the podium in mid-September, in Riga (Latvia), where the final phase of the competition will be competed.
The Blues are still far from it. They will have to start by a successful entry on Thursday ahead of Belgium in Katowice, for the first match in major competition at the head of the tricolor selection of the coach Frédéric Faith.
The Landais-always undefeated since his arrival-may not be satisfied at 100 % of his last match of his own, who proposed an uneven period (43-49 at half-time), but he saw his group come back after the break in force to dominate the band to Vassilis Spanoulis.
The French, despite the good contribution of Théo Maledon (16 points, equal personal record), first ran to score a large part of the first act, victims of several losses of bullets and not always inspired offensively. The Greeks, led by Antetokounmpo (20 pts), also took advantage of their agility with free throws (15/20 at the break) to take their ease.
But relaunched by Bilal Coulibaly (10 pts), the Guerschon Yabusele teammates then offered much higher opposition. Very solid in defense, like this big against Mam Jaiteh (56-54), they then took the best on their evening opponent, left at 12 points in the third quarter (71-61). Before confirming in the last.
The Olympic vice-champions will now join Poland with the first objective of leaving a group of six within their reach to qualify for the final phase.
As a reminder, it is a team widely revamped compared to that of the Paris Games who will appear at the Euro to try to seek a new podium after 2022. In turn, Victor Wembanyama, Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier or Mathias Lessort had given up the competition.