Game Summary

Turning point: In the 28^th minute it was still a two point game in favor of France, but then Croatia's Marko Banic fouled out and Nikola Prkacin followed with a technical. France used that to reach an 11 point lead, and despite Croatia managing to come closer several times, the lead never changed hands again and France remained the dominant force.

Hero: Parker was the main man once again, but not only for the 24 points, six rebounds and six assists but the way he spread it. Half of his points were scored in the third quarter when his team turned a Croatian lead to a ten point game in their favor. In the last quarter he focused on anything but scoring and dished no less than five of his six assists in addition to three of his rebounds.

Stats: Croatia enjoyed a good shooting night with seven three-pointers on 54% shooting, but saw France better them with 12 long distance arrows. When a team like France shoot like that from distance, it's close to impossible to beat them.

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After the second day of games in Group E in Bydgoszcz there's only one team perfect and that is France following an 87-79 victory over Croatia.

The French climbed to a 4-0 record, but still must beat Greece on the last day to secure the top spot.

Nicolas Batum had 18 points to help keep France perfect.

Croatia dropped to an unexpected 1-3 record and must beat Germany on the closing day to avoid a shocking elimination.

There were two different halves to this game.

In the first Croatia played their best basketball so far in the championship, and reached a nine point lead behind great shooting led by Marko Popovic.

The sequel showed a tougher French defense and a big performance by Tony Parker who took over the game, and led his team-mates to a rare performance of eight three pointers on 66.6% shooting.

"At half time we decided to change our gameplan," said winning Coach Vincent Collet.

"We didn't play well in the first half and the fact we were down by just five made us happy.

"We knew that if we step up on defense we can come back and that's what we did."

After Croatia was the dominating force in the first half, France wrote two runs to put them on top.

They used a technical foul on Nikola Prkacin, who fouled out as a result, to open the gap Croatia never managed to beat.

Parker led his team with 24 points, six assists and six rebounds but spread them in a perfect way.

Half of his points came in the third quarter, just when France took over the lead, while five assists and three rebounds joined the stat line in the closing quarter.

Nicholas Batum followed behind with 18 points, half of them from distance, five boards and two blocks.

Boris Diaw added 15 behind four long distance balls in addition to six assists and four rebounds.

Florent Pietrus added 14.

Croatia enjoyed 30 points by Popovic - the second best scoring performance in the competition so far - who spread his points almost equally between the first and the second halves.

He actually started his scoring drive only with the last basket of the first quarter and scored all of his points from either the charity stripe or beyond the arc.

Roko-Leni Ukic added 11 and Marko Banic had ten.

"The first 20 minutes was maybe our best (we played) in this tournament, but we need to play like that the whole game," said Coach Jasmin Repesa of Croatia.

Already in the first quarter France collected three triples.

Diaw started with an air-ball but added two hits from distance down the stretch of the first quarter, and Parker showed his skills with an off-dribble shot.

Croatia at the other end attacked the rim time and time both with the guards and inside players.

Ukic and Planinic drove to the rim while Banic and Prkacin posted up to bring their team to the last possession of the quarter down by a point, 19-18.

Popovic beat the buzzer to give his team the first points behind the arc but kept that momentum into the second quarter.

Kus and Popovic added two more three-pointers and a minute inside the second quarter it was already a 29-20 Croatian lead after an 11-1 run.

Balls were jumping on the rim and out for the French side, while Popovic remained hot reaching 16 points before the break, and his team up by seven, 46-39.

Diaw hit two from the line and saw Batum block a Planinic attempt to beat the clock, as the teams separated by five.

"We missed many free throws in the first half and if we had shot better we could have held a ten point lead at the break," referred Coach Repesa to the seven misses his team committed in the first 20 minutes.

"What mostly concerns me is that our mental strength was very, very bad.

"Once things didn't work for us we lost control of the game," he added.

Just inside the second half France was back on top after Pietrus and Parker led a 10-2 run.

Yannick Bokolo, who did a great job limiting Popovic for some minutes in the third, recorded a big block on Ukic which kept France on top, but the following play got Croatia in trouble.

Banic fouled out and Prkacin's protest sentenced him to the same destiny limiting Repesa's options on the bigs.

Parker hurt Croatia with a three-pointer, Pietrus added some of his own and another 12-1 French run wrote a 63-52 difference late in the third.

The French defense continued to make it tough for the Croats until Popovic woke up with five points in a row and forced a time out by Coach Collet up by only five, 70-65.

Mistakes on both ends of the floor allowed Croatia to enter the last four minutes down 73-69, but a three point by Bokolo and a fast break lay up by Batum pushed it to nine once more.

Croatia cut it down once more to four inside the last minute before Diaw sank the decisive three ball that told the story of the game.

Roko Leni Ukic (Croatia):

"It was very tough game. They are a very athletic team. They have the incredible Tony Parker who is very hard to stop. They had a good shooting day, scoring a lot of points from the outside."

Vincent Collet (France Coach):

"We lost the first half. In the second half we went back to playing tough defense. We kept the control. We finished the game with a good shooting percentage."

Jasmin Repesa (Croatia Coach):

"I'm satisfied how we played the first 13 minutes. The start of the second half was the key point of the game. We lost control of the game and of ourselves. It was very difficult to get back into the game. The first minutes of the game were our best in Poland. The game against Germany will be the key one for us."

The last game of the second day in Group E played in Bydgoszcz will feature two power houses going in two different directions- Croatia and France.

The French team is on fire having a perfect 3-0 record after not dropping a single game the whole championship. Their concert against F.Y.R.O.M. two days ago set an example what can happen when things connect for the squad of Coach Vincent Collet.

Coach Collet enjoys a deep roster with experienced players but also some uprising stars as Nando De Colo and Antoine Diot who show they fit the level in their first EuroBasket performance.

It's very tough to play against the highly athletic French team, who put big pressure on defense, and use their size and physical attributes to dominate the offensive side.

The only big riddle about the French team is how they are going to react when they face their first big opponent, as so far they have gained three wins against the least skilled and deep Group B teams and added another on F.Y.R.O.M.

There are rarely easy games in a EuroBasket, but facing a team with a short bench is easier for a team that relays a lot of pressure on defense and exhausting the key players of the opponent as France.

How they will react against a long list of top players is a question they still didn't answer.

Croatia at the other end is in trouble and not only because of their 1-2 record in the group.

Before the championship started it seemed as Croatia would be the one to fit the description of a highly talented team with a deep roster - of the kind France didn't face yet, but In the 16 quarters they played so far, they can count maybe three as successful ones. The rest, and the Croats are the first to admit it, doesn't fit their potential.

There are a lot of doubts and hesitations in the Croat camp regarding what holds them from bringing to the court their expected level.

A 12 man roster loaded with talent, experience, skills, size, athleticism, shooters, intelligence, pride and they are even a glued group of friends who support each other the whole way.

On the bench sits one of the best coaches in Europe - Jasmin Repesa, who has his share of experience in EuroBasket as well as finals in top club competitions, backed by Drazen Anzulovic - a coach with a resume thicker and more impressive than some of the head coaches in the competition.

It seems like every minute the Croats can blow up and bring the expected level of play, but after four games they are still looking for their answers, and with a loss to France they could be 40 minutes from a shocking elimination.

Will France prove they can make it happen against the big names too or will Croatia finally blow up and give France their first defeat? All the eyes of basketball fans in Europe are set on this interesting match.

Head-to-head: In a span of 14 years these two teams faced each other only five times, and Croatia won three of them. The last of them was two years ago in EuroBasket 2007 when Croatia won 86-69 in the 5-8 classification games behind 15 points by Zoran Planinic and Marko Popovic.

Last time out: Croatia suffered a tough 62-59 loss to Russia behind a very bad shooting day, while France easily crushed F.Y.R.O.M. 83-57.

Stats: After four games in the group France have the best defensive numbers by allowing only 59.3 ppg.  Croatia already showed they have trouble against tough defense as Greece and Russia, so a lot will depend on their outside shooting. So far in their two losses Croatia was accurate in 31.6% and 29.4% from the arc, while in their two wins jumped to 50% and 38.5%. This will be a factor against France as well probably, but there's one thing the players of Coach Repesa must keep in mind. So far in this EuroBasket there's one team that allow both the fewest made three pointers (5.8) and lowest percentage from the same distance (28.4%) and that team is no other than...France. 

Key Match-Up: Zoran Planinic and Tony Parker are the hearts and minds of their teams. The Croat leads his team in assists (ranked 2^nd in the competition), while the French in points (2^nd) and steals (1st). Planinic is so far the most consistent contributor in his team's back court, while Parker is the French postman - always delivers and on time.

X-Factor: Davor Kus of Croatia is the barometer when it comes to his team's three point shooting. In the good shooting nights of Croatia he scored twice from distance in good percentages, while in the two bad shooting days he missed all of his attempts. Follow his performance to learn more on what is about to come for Croatia in this game.

Sounding-Off: "Playing against Croatia after they lost to Russia can't be good for us, because they will come hurt and must win if they want to make the quarter-finals, but if we play good we could beat them." - France's Boris Diaw.