EuroBasket - Italy, Serbia fight for final World Cup spot

LJUBLJANA (EuroBasket/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - Nineteen nations have already qualified for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup. The 20th - and final - qualifier will be decided on Saturday when Italy take on Serbia for seventh place at EuroBasket 2013.

Italy will be playing their third game in as many days after losing to Lithuania in the Quarter-Finals on Thursday and then falling to Ukraine in the 5-8 Classification Round on Friday.

Serbia, meanwhile, have not played since Thursday when they lost to Slovenia in 5-8 Classification Round action following their Quarter-Final loss to Spain on Wednesday.

"The big problem for us is recovering our energy," said a visibly tired Italy coach Simone Pianigiani after his team's defeat against Ukraine.

"One week ago maybe this kind of game was a game of two different basketball styles. But tomorrow (Saturday), nobody knows. It's another story."

The Italians have dropped four of their last five games after opening the competition with five straight wins in the first group stage.

Serbia have lost three of their last four games but know that it all comes down to Saturday.

"Everything that we worked for during two months will be judged during that game. We need to show what we practiced and what we did during the summer in that game," said point guard Stefan Markovic.

The winner of the game will join at Spain 2014 the already qualified European teams of France, Lithuania, Croatia, Slovenia and Ukraine; tournament hosts Spain; Olympic champions United States; Australia and New Zealand from Oceania; Iran, Philippines and Korea from Asia; African sides Angola, Egypt and Senegal; and Mexico, Puerto Rico, Argentina and Dominican Republic.

The final four berths will be given out as wild cards.

For full and in-depth coverage of EuroBasket 2013, go to the official website http://www.eurobasket2013.org.

FIBA