The battle for the third place on European Basketball championship in Lithuania. Russia is a big favorite, but I still think Macedonia can upset them. It is true Russia won in the group stage with 63:61 (12.09.2011), but it is also true Macedonia was very, very close to the victory. Just one second before the final whistle Sergey Monya scored three points and brought a victory to Russia. It is clear Macedonia could easily win that game too. Russia was lucky to win, even the coach David Blatt admitted that.

Now is a new match, an interesting battle for the bronze medal. Macedonian players are very tired, but the motivation is extremely big. They are something like nation heroes, I am sure they will find a power for one more match. On other side Russian players are little disappointed, they were hoping to play in the final. The defeat from France could be an important factor. That was their first defeat on European championship.

Macedonia main handicap will be the absence of Todor Gecevski. He broke the hand against Slovenia and he didn't play since then. But even without him Macedonia managed to eliminate the hosts in quarterfinal and Macedonia was competitive against Spain in the semifinal. Don't forget Macedonia won the first half against Spain. Sorry, but I don't see any team to make such result against fully motivated Spain players (I know Turkey won against Spain, that's why I wrote against "fully motivated" Spain players). Bo McCalebb and Pero Antic are the leaders, they are playing in great form and I see big problems for Russian team.