Italy in the quarterfinals of the basketball world championship, the words of Pozzecco and Melli

“We are among the top 8 in the world, it is an incredible result. I don’t know who would have bet on us. We have a staff that trusts us and we try to reciprocate”. Nicolò Melli, one of the protagonists of this match against Puerto Rico, celebrates Italy’s qualification for the quarter-finals after 25 years. “I was luckier than other times in rebounding – he declared after the 73-57 win against Puerto Rico which takes the Azzurri to the quarter-finals of the World Cup-. But in this team everyone brings his brick. Ricci had an extraordinary game, Simone (Fontecchio) the same, then Gigi (Datome), Tonut “. And Ricci, also at 15 in one of the best games of his World Cup, explains: “Sometimes the baskets seem tight. Even if the shots don’t work, we continue to create them, a glance is enough to light the flame. Whoever entered brought a small piece. It was an extraordinary match”.

Here is the Poz

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Pozzecco was on the field 25 years ago and now leads Italy: “I dedicate it to Matteo Spagnolo, to his family following the loss of his maternal grandfather. These are things to which I give an exaggerated value in your opinion, right for me. I wrote to him this morning and he replied: ‘Let’s go and win this game’. Nobody believed it, I justify all those who didn’t believe it just because they don’t know these guys well. I have 12 wonderful boys. The only one who believed it in all of Italy was Gigi’s father (Datome, ed), but because he knows his son ”. It’s a river in full flow Poz: “To achieve something like this you have to risk, we risked talking about ourselves as if we were the ones who could go all the way – he says to Sky Sport microphones-. We perceive the nation behind us, I think it’s one of the most beautiful pages of our basketball. At the World Cup, apart from when there were still the Punic Wars, we never had the slightest chance of being able to hope. In sport, the thing you have to guarantee to live it with a minimum of gratification is to be able to compete, and these guys can fight anyone.”

Giggy 200

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Two hundred games for Datome: “Luckily I still play for a few days. The ball didn’t enter, we said to each other that sooner or later it would enter. We didn’t make it to the last World Cup, now we want to continue having fun. It will be nice to play in a quarter-final at the World Cup, I’m happy to be part of this group, we are united, we are playing good basketball”. And Gianni Petrucci, president of Federbasket: “Too many years that we didn’t reach the top 8 in the world. Smart choices were made and the team was perfect. Now we have to dream. We have a first-rate technical staff”.