Basketball: Susijeng’s incredible rise – tough France fell in the World Cup qualifiers

Finland–France 83–76

Finnish rose to a wonderful 83–76 home win against France in the men’s World Cup qualifiers at Espoo’s Metro Arena.

Susigengi was the chaser for most of the match, but in the last few moments they leveled up and passed against a tough country.

The victory fought in front of a sold-out home crowd was Finland’s first in the World Cup qualifiers, as it lost its opening match to Hungary last Friday.

Finland Edon Maxhuni was the match’s top scorer with 20 points. Brilliant in the final quarter Alexander Madsen bagged 14 points. Among the French players, he scored the most Matthew Strazel (11).

“This is how we should have played on Friday against Hungary as well”, commented Maxhuni, referring to Finland’s surprise loss to Hungary on Friday.

Both Finland and France played in Espoo without their NBA stars.

Monday the match started evenly, even though Susijeng’s attack sputtered at times.

Hard-nosed France hit the gas at the beginning of the second quarter and quickly ran away to a ten-point lead. At halftime, France led by 45–37.

Finland is slowly closing in on the divorce, and Oliver Nkamhouan the stylish donk lit up the sold-out Metro-arena at the beginning of the final quarter.

Mikael Jantunen free throws finally brought Finland level three minutes before the end.

Finnish captain Sasu Salin blew the crowd into a storm of screams a minute later and took Susijengi out of reach.

Finland’s qualifying campaign continues at the turn of February and March, when it faces Belgium twice.

Susijeng must finish in the top three in its group of four teams in order to make it to the second stage of the qualifiers.

The World Cup qualification continues at the turn of February and March, when Finland will face Belgium twice.

The top three teams from the four-nation qualifying group advance to the next qualifying group, and a total of 12 European teams qualify for the 2027 World Cup finals in Qatar.