France radiates, Hifi shines

Published on September 5, 2025

On Thursday afternoon, Nadir Hifi’s red-hot French team made short work of Iceland (114-74). Meanwhile, Ismaël Bako’s Belgium pulled off a surprise win against Poland (69-70).

Already qualified for the Euro quarter-finals, France approached this final group match with the ambition of regaining first place in their group. To do so, they had two objectives: to beat Iceland by a significant margin and to hope that Slovenia would beat Israel at the same time.

Mission accomplished! With a 32-point lead at half-time, Les Bleus quickly took control of the match. Nadir Hifi took advantage of the opportunity to rack up the points: 11 points in 11 minutes. A clean performance from our point guard, which we hope to see again on Sunday at 2.15 p.m. against Georgia in the last 16.

Unfortunately, Ismaël Bako did not enjoy the same success, despite Belgium’s victory over Poland. Our new centre contributed 6 rebounds and 2 blocks.

Sadly, however, the Red Devils finished in fourth place, despite Ismaël Bako’s strong performance throughout the week. He will be playing alongside his new teammates at Paris Basketball in the Neofytos Chandriotis tournament from 12 to 14 September.

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