CRO - Full steam ahead as Bralic makes final cuts

ZAGREB (FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Women) – The moment of truth is about to arrive for Croatia, one of the teams travelling to Ankara for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Women (OQTW).

Five places to the London Games will be claimed at the OQTW, and Croatia intend to be one of them.

Having snatched the fifth and final spot from the EuroBasket Women last year to assure themselves of a spot in the 12-team event in Turkey, Stipe Bralic’s team will now take at the Olympics with the coach have on Friday finalized his squad.

Bralic has elected to cut Marta Perlic and Sena Pavetic, leaving Jelena Ivezić, Anđa Jelavić, Antonija Mišura, Sandra Mandir, Emanuela Salopek, Iva Ciglar, Ana Lelas, Iva Slišković, Mirna Mazić, Lisa Karčić, Marija Vrsaljko and Luca Ivanković to battle for an Olympic place.

"We want to be among those five teams that will travel from Ankara to London,” Bralic said.

“We really hope that we'll succeed and make that historic step."

Croatia will face Korea and Mozambique in Group C and, if they prevail in one of those games, will advance to a Quarter-Final against one of teams from Group D, which consists of France, Mali and Canada.

Winners of the Quarter-Finals clinch places at the Olympics while the losers will battle it out for the fifth and final berth to London.

"We really don't know anything about our first opponent, Mozambique, but we are ready for our mission,” Bralic said.

“We've got some tapes from Korean matches. We've also analyzed our possible rivals in the second round, Canada and France and, as we've done good job in our training camp, we're coming to Turkey full of optimism."

FIBA