Can Erozden
25 February 2020•Update: 25 February 2020
ANKARA
The Turkish national basketball team disappointed its fans Monday after Sweden beat it 87-80 in a FIBA EuroBasket 2021 qualifying group match in Stockholm.
The Turkish team retained its disappointing form in Sweden, losing the first two games in the qualifying Group D.
Ludvig Hakanson was a Swedish hero, scoring 23 points at the Globe Arena and making eight assists as well.
Swedish shooting guard Johan Lofberg dropped 14 points and William Magarity scored 13 points for Sweden.
Sertac Sanli netted 23 points to keep Turkey in the game.
Turkish shooting guard Melih Mahmutoglu scored 17 points against Sweden and power forward Berkan Durmaz tallied 11 points.
It marked Turkey’s second defeat in Group D.
On Friday, Turkey faced an unexpected loss to the Netherlands by 65-72 in the capital Ankara, making a bad start to the EuroBasket 2021 qualifiers.
The Turkish team are in the same qualifying group as Croatia, Sweden and the Netherlands to book a spot in next year's EuroBasket tournament.
The next two games will be held in November as Turkey will first visit Croatia on Nov. 26 and travel to the Netherlands on Nov. 29.
Croatia leads Group D with an away victory, beating the Netherlands 69-59 in Almere. The Croatians had two-game run.
The Netherlands are in second spot with one win and one loss.
Sweden are in third place with a 1-1 win/loss record.
Turkey lost their two matches to be in last place.
EuroBasket 2021 Qualifiers format
In total, 32 nations from eight groups are set to play in the EuroBasket 2021 qualifiers.
As teams will compete in a round-robin format, each nation will meet all other contestants in home and away games.
The three highest-placed teams from each group, except the groups which have the FIBA EuroBasket 2021 co-host nations, will secure their tickets for EuroBasket 2021.
FIBA EuroBasket 2021 will be co-hosted by Czech Republic, Georgia, Germany and Italy and these teams will also play in the qualifiers.
For the groups which have host countries, the host nations and the two other highest placed teams in each group will advance to the next year's EuroBasket tournament.
Regardless of the results, the host teams will qualify for EuroBasket 2021.
There will be six game days during 2020 and 2021 as the group matches in qualifiers will begin on Feb. 20.
The first two games will be in February 2020, but there will be break until Nov. 26 when the third game day begins.
