The stadium was pretty busy for the battle for third place between France and Serbia. The crowd was fairly one sided (not surprisingly).

It was a close game during q1, both teams were strong on defence and the quarter finished with both teams on 16 points. There were several periods during q1 where neither team scored, suggesting it was gong to be a defence focused game.

France were again struggling to make use of their possessions and found themselves forcing shots with only 1 or 2 seconds left on the clock. This lead to quite a few turnovers. Equally you could explain that as Serbia being strong on defence but I noticed the same thing in France’s game against Spain.

Despite a shaky start to Q2, France were able to take a lead and keep it for the remainder of the quarter. They finished q2 ahead by 5. It was clear that Serbia were not going to accept defeat lightly and they were doing what they could to fight back.

This became the theme of the second half. There were times when it did look as though Serbia could take over. However, France maintained their composure and were able to keep a comfortable distance in points.

In the end this game was not as close as I had anticipated.

It was a good win for France though I suspect it did little to ease the hurt of the defeat to Spain.