Sneaky2021
Member
COACH Aleksandar Petrovic is wary about Gilas Pilipinas as his Brazil team plays another Cinderella team in the crossover semifinals of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Riga, Latvia. The Brazilians are coming off a 77-74 loss to Cameroon, ranked No. 68 in the world, last Thursday. Brazil was able to secure the No. 1 spot in Group A only because of a better points difference. A day later, the world's No. 12-ranked team will now be up against another underdog team from the Philippines, which is at No. 37 and defeated sixth-ranked Latvia, 89-80, in the group stage to earn its place in the semis. The Brazil-Philippines semifinals is on Saturday, 3:30 p.m. local time (Saturday, 8:30 p.m. Philippine standard time) Brazil played in last year’s FIBA Basketball World Cup but in Jakarta. It finished 13th but didn’t need to make the trip to Manila for the knockout rounds. Petrovic said Gilas poses a different challenge compared to other teams they’ve faced including Cameroon. When asked about it during a postgame press conference, Petrovic said Cameroon plays more of a physical style of play, while the Philippines is more technical."If you are not ready to face that physicality which the African teams have, you are in big trouble because they are all over the rim, they press you, and you need to have clean ideas. Cameroon is that kind of team," said the Croatian coach." Philippines is completely different. It’s a highly-technical team with excellent players. Four or five of them play more than 33 minutes. It’s very difficult to compare them. It’s completely different," said Petrovic.
It sounds like Brazil is in for a tough game against the Philippines. 
Gilas Pilipinas has definitely shown they’re a force to be reckoned with, so it’ll be exciting to see how it all plays out! 
