The Men’s National Team continues its preparations ahead of its FIBA EuroBasket 2029 preliminary qualifiers with a particularly challenging friendly match against the Greek National Team.
Our national team will face Greece on Monday, August 24, at 6:00 p.m., at the “Telekom Center Athens,” in its final test match before the start of its official competition.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
The match also holds historical significance, as it will be the first time the men’s national teams of Cyprus and Greece have faced off in a friendly match on Greek soil.
Cyprus is traveling to Athens with four key players missing, as national team coach Panagiotis Giannaras will not have Filippos Tigkas, Konstantinos Simitzis, Nikos Stylianou, and Aeneas Young will not be available to national team coach Panagiotis Giannaras.
These are four basketball players who had been included in the national team’s 12-man roster for FIBA EuroBasket 2025, a fact that increases the difficulty of the task against a high-level opponent.
Despite the absences, the game is a very important competitive test for our national team and gives the coaching staff the opportunity to try out different lineups and draw useful conclusions just a few days before the start of official matches.
The Cyprus national team is already looking ahead to Thursday, August 27, when it will host Austria at the “Spyros Kyprianou” Stadium in Limassol for its opener in the second round of the FIBA EuroBasket 2029 preliminary qualifiers.
The friendly match against Greece thus serves as the final and toughest test before the team begins its quest for qualification.
The Cyprus National Team’s 12-man roster: Ioannis Pasialis, Simon Michael, Michalis Koumis, Stefanos Tigkas, Panagiotis Pavlidis, Stefanos Iliadis, Giannis Giannaras, Haris Giannaras, Christos Loizidis, Panagiotis Markou, Solonas Aggelis, Roberto Mantovani
On the other hand, the “blue-and-white” team is putting its 89-81 victory over Poland behind it and is now turning its attention to the second friendly match before the “qualifying window”. Vassilis Spanoulis will have the opportunity to test out different players and lineups once again, with an eye toward the crucial games ahead.
Tonight’s game is, after all, Greece’s final test before the official matches against Ukraine in Riga (August 28 – 7:00 p.m.) and Spain in Athens (August 31 – 7:00 p.m.).
Preparations, however, continue amid new developments for the national team coach. Vasilis Charalampopoulos will not be available, as he was injured in the friendly against Poland and an MRI revealed a partial tear in his patellar tendon. The 29-year-old forward is expected to be sidelined for about a month.
With 15 players now available, it remains to be seen which ones will be left off the roster for the friendly match. As a reminder, Kostas Papanikolaou, Antonis Karagiannidis, and Dimitris Flionis were absent from the game against Poland.
The 15 available players: T. Antetokounmpo, K. Antetokounmpo, Bazinas, Kalathis, Dorsey, Kalaitzakis, Larentzakis, Mitoglou, Moraitis, Netzipoglou, Persidis, Toliopoulos, Karagiannidis, Flionis, Papanikolaou.
