Belgian cats die in the World Cup quarter-finals after losing to Australia | Basketball World Cup

Last year, the Belgian cats caused a stunt at the Olympics by defeating Australia, which is currently ranked third in the world. That it would be more difficult in the quarter-finals on Thursday was within expectations.

Australia is the host nation for the World Cup, and Belgium is once again missing star Emma Meesemann, who suffered a calf injury in the group stage. She was forced to support her team from the bench.

The lack of a Meesseman was especially felt in the recoil. Without Meesseman’s height, Belgium was clearly short under the ring by centimeters, allowing Australia to take complete control of the plates. The big difference in the rebound was telling: 23 for Belgium and no less than 48 for Opals.

With the Belgian cats also not right defensively, Australia were able to completely control the game before the break: 37-52. In the second half, the national team coach Demore looked for solutions, but the host team always had a ready and direct answer with a maximum difference of 24 points.

In the last quarter, Australia celebrated the reins and the Belgian cats managed to limit the damage somewhat: 69-86. Four years ago, the Belgian reached the semi-finals in her first World Cup appearance. That wasn’t really possible in this tournament, certainly not after Messman was injured.

The Cats’ next big target is the European Championship, which will be played next summer. The qualifiers for that tournament will resume at the end of November, when Belgium plays for its people against North Macedonia and Bosnia.

Valery Demore, head coach of the national team, was not satisfied with the sharpness he saw from his team before the end of the first half. “I was a bit disappointed about the first half. Maybe it was because of Emma’s absence, but in the first half we showed a little bit of strength to win the World Cup quarter-final,” the Frenchman was decisive.

“The quarter-final is always an important moment in a big tournament. The second half was much better in terms of strength, but you have to be able to put in 40 minutes if you want to be in the match.”

“In the first half, I didn’t see the defensive mobility that I was used to. We have a young team without Emma. Today we made a lot of mistakes, but we will learn from them.”

“This is a very good group that can still make a lot of progress. We will work hard in training. This experience will help us in the next European Championship if we qualify.”

“It’s a pity we didn’t play our best game, because we could have made it more realistic,” Antonia Delayer said after the quarter-finals.

“We were not strong in defense and were not able to carry out our attack plan. We did not play our best basketball.”

“Australia of course is a favorite for the medal, but I still have a feeling there are opportunities for us. So I have a mixed feeling that we didn’t get everything from that.”

“I remember from this World Cup that we now know where we can go with this group and that is to reach a final in the European Championships,” DeLaer was already looking forward.