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The great neighbourhood derby

When it comes to basketball, these two are huge rivals. They've met three times so far during the preparations, and there are no secrets here

During the first stage of the competition, Lithuania did what they were expected to do, scoring wins against France and England and carrying over two points to the next stage. Everyone knew they had no chance against Croatia, so there was no point feeling bad about it. The most important thing was they  got to the second stage, and now have a real chance of getting to the quarterfinal if they continue with the performances they gave in the group. In their last match against England we once again saw Domantas Sabonis dominate.

The man destroyed both the French and the English with his game in the paint. He is currently the best in rebounds here, with double-digit rebounds per game  and his presence in the paint is crucial for Lithuania and their ambitions. Today he will face off against Latvian centers Malmanis and Meznieks in a great battle, as they've proven themselves to be very aggressive and good at rebounding, however they lack the height of Arapović/Bender/Žižić, who are the only players to have stopped Sabonis at this tournament.

This means Lithuania will almost certainly have the advantage in the paint through Sabonis, and this match will be decided on the perimeter. Here we've seen Lithuania do much more so far, as Paliukenas, Zuklevicius and Varnas are all hellishly good shooters, in great form at the moment, and abusing the fact that opponents are doubling up on Sabonis.

Latvia entered the tournament badly with a tough defeat against Italy, but managed to pull themselves together in time and decisively beat both Poland and Belgium, and their advance to the second stage is fully deserved. The deciding segment was Latvia's defense, very aggressive and with great blockers in case someone reaches the rim.

- I think we played our best and most mature match here so far. We played great defense, allowed only 52 points, dominated the rebounding and offense also did great 80% of the time. This is the path we need to follow- said the Latvian selector Vecvargas after the match.

Led by the already mentioned Malmanis and Meznieks, Latvia are at the very top of the rebounding scoreboard in this tournament. This will be very important, as they need to stop Sabonis in that segment if they wish to start the second round with a victory. Vecvargas believes his team can face anyone:

- If we stay disciplined and concentrate, I believe we can parry anyone here.

They are thoroughly familiar with their first opponent, as Latvia and Lithuania played three matches during preparations. Latvia lost twice (66-58,
79-64), but managed to surprise in the last match, in Kaunas (68-69) and their hopes for today are based on that. If they manage to control Sabonis under the rim they could easily surprise here as this Lithuanian generation is far from what we're used to seeing from their national team.

A basketball match between Lithuania and Latvia is always a close game with heightened tension. In my opinion, here we might see a much closer match than the odds suggest, as these two teams are very familiar with each other, having already faced each other three times in the preparation period. In one of those matches played in Kaunas Latvia even managed to beat Lithuania in an away match, while this game is played on neutral ground. Latvia have a great tall lineup that can parry Sabonis, which is already half the work done against Lithuania. Latvian selector Vecvargas already stated that his team can parry anyone if they keep their focus and I think they have a good chance here, if not to win, then definitely for a close match.