The wolf gang survived the disaster in the World Cup qualifiers

Finland the national men’s basketball team played really poorly and, as early favorites, got into trouble in the World Cup qualifiers in Belgium on Friday.

Susigengi spent the majority of the match in defeat, but the quality superiority was enough for a 71–66 victory over the host country.

Belgium led 61–51 with about six minutes remaining. After that, he scored 23 points Olivier Nkamhoua stepped forward, and Finland scored 13 consecutive points.

The work win lifted Finland to the shared first place in Group G with Hungary and France.

Belgium have lost all three of their matches and a place at the 2027 World Cup in early autumn in Qatar looks unlikely.

32 The qualifying round of the European country takes place in eight groups. The three best teams in each group advance to the further qualification, where the G group is combined with the H group.

However, the matches of this qualifying round already mean a lot, because the series points are included in the further qualification.

The struggles in Group G have been confusingly even, as the Finnish and especially the French teams are superior on paper.

France sweatily defeated Hungary on Friday, to whom Finland lost its opening qualifier in November. At that time, Susijengi settled for long throws in the first half and fell behind by 21 points.

Finnish fell into inactivity in Charleroi as well, but Belgium did not punish as effectively. For example, the back man Edon Maxhuni punctuated his carries and didn’t challenge the switching defense.

On the other hand, it was difficult to get to the basket when Belgium blocked the three-second zone and left long throws free. Finland’s three-point accuracy of 7/33 made it possible for the underdog to hang on to the lead.

The wolf pack shines when it can attack quickly after a good defense. Belgium was able to kill these moments with their timeouts, after which Finland returned to driving behind the ball screens again.

Directness would therefore be needed, and they brought it in the European Championships, for example Elias Valtonen and Miikka Muurinen. The first is unfortunately injured and the second barely touched the ball inside the triple arc.

Muurinen got moderate playing time anyway: he spent exactly eight minutes on the floor.

Euroleague player Mikael Jantunen clocked the biggest minutes (33.09) and was one of Susijeng’s successful players. They were also first and second in the plus-minus statistics, Sasu Salin (+14) and Andre Gustavson (+13).

Finland and Belgium will meet again in the World Cup qualifiers on Sunday in Espoo.