GRE - Printezis warns Greece of dangers ahead

ATHENS (2010 FIBA World Championship) - Georgios Printezis is expecting a much tougher challenge at the FIBA World Championship than the team faced at the EuroBasket last year. 

Greece won bronze in Poland but Printezis is warning his team-mates a repeat of that kind of success will not come easily in Turkey.

"This will be much more difficult than it was in the last tournament," he said. "There are teams from around the world, and basically there are more knockout games in the tournament, so you must win to be successful.

"The line between success and failure is very thin. We will need to be focused and ready."

Printezis sees as many as seven serious candidates to take gold, looking beyond the obvious favourites like Spain and the United States to teams including Argentina, Serbia, and Lithuania.

"We know it will be difficult," he said. "There are seven teams you can say are favourites, at least seven teams who can win gold. Some of them have players absent, but we will still need to be ready."

Greece are certainly among that group, and the Unicaja Malaga forward knows there are high expectations on the team.

"We have been successful and everyone expects us to keep the national team up there," he said. "It depends on us."

FIBA