MUNICH (FIBA EuroBasket Women 2017) – It's been a busy week for the teams heading to FIBA EuroBasket Women 2017 with various nations cutting their respective squads and playing the first preparation games of the summer.

Capobianco makes cuts to Italy squad
Italy head coach Andrea Capobianco has made some early cuts to his extensive list of candidates. Ahead of welcoming the Gesam Gas Lucca and Beretta Famila Schio players who had been allowed extra time to rest ahead of the camp, the play-caller moved to make some space.

The quartet of Andre Olbis Futo, Martina Kacerik, Marcella Filippi and Debora Carangelo were all released for the start of the second week of preparation.

Bitter sweet for Belgium
It's been a mixed few days for Belgium ahead of their return to The Final Round after they learned that WNBA draftee and rising star Julie Allemand had been ruled out by an injury.

That came off the back of fellow guard Hind Ben Abdelkader missing the event due to needing surgery.

However, Philip Mestdagh and his players won 59-56 against Slovak Republic and then completed a 66-57 follow-up success - despite being without Ann Wauters and Emma Meesseman.

Serbia sail past the neighbours
There was a winning start to a new era for Serbia as recently-appointed head coach Stevan Karadzic oversaw a 72-40 victory against Montenegro.

Jelena Milovanovic poured in 18 points during the contest which was played behind closed doors, with Serbia not able to field Ana Dabovic or Sonja Petrovic who are working under a special regime to get fit.

Montenegro were without the likes of Angelica Robinson of Yakin Dogu Universitesi for the first game under the stewardship of new head coach, Roberto Iniguez.

Romero to follow Palau at Prague
It won't just be the senior Spanish team where playmaker Leticia Romero will follow in the footsteps of the legendary Laia Palau. As well as pushing to become the premier point guard for her country, Romero will also suit up for ZVVZ USK Prague in EuroLeague Women next season after the Czech giants confirmed she had signed for 2017-18.

That will give The Final Round an extra edge for Romero as she heads to the Czech Republic. Spain are certainly one of the favorites. The 2013 champions also completed a win-double in recent days against Poland and China.

They eased past Poland 69-47 as Marta Xargay added 14 points and 6 steals, while Alba Torrens exploded for 32 points in a 68-58 win against their visitors from Asia.

Latvia do the double against Ukraine
There was joy in Riga and a good start to preparation for Latvia who completed a win-double against Ukraine. They eased their way to a 68-62 success, thanks mainly to 18 points from center Anete Steinberga.

Latvia then won 75-68 against a Ukraine team without their marquee star Alina Iagupova, as Taisiia Udodenko racked up 18 points in defeat.

Happy travels to Hungary for Slovenia
Even if they have never before appeared at The Final Round and also have a tricky opening group phase, Slovenia could be a dangerous outfit and showed their potential by claiming a win double in Hungary.

A 17-point haul from new naturalized forward Shante Evans underpinned a 77-64 success in the opening encounter. Teja Oblak fired 13 points in a narrow 81-79 success in the second match-up – although notably the hosts were without their own naturalized star, Courtney Vandersloot.

FIBA