Australia and France bring number of qualified teams for China 2019 to eight
MIES (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019) - Australia and France on Friday became respectively the seventh and eighth teams to qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China.
MIES (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019) - Australia and France on Friday became respectively the seventh and eighth teams to qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China.
Australia cruised to a 76-49 win over Iran in Melbourne to improve to 8-1 in Group F of the Asian Qualifiers. The Boomers are the region's first team to book its place at FIBA's flagship competition next summer.
🇦🇺 Australia are the first team from the Asian Qualifiers to officially qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019! Congrats @BasketballAus!#FIBAWC pic.twitter.com/eOLVf7x0fg
— Basketball World Cup (@FIBAWC) November 30, 2018
France became the fifth team from Europe to punch their ticket to next year's World Cup after fighting back to take a 79-65 win over already qualified Czech Republic by scoring the game's last 18 points.
C'est fait 🇫🇷🎉! @FRABasketball seal their ticket to China ✈️ after defeating Czech Republic 79-65!#FIBAWC #ThisIsMyHouse pic.twitter.com/9ommLapCDa
— Basketball World Cup (@FIBAWC) November 30, 2018
The Australians and French are the first teams in this fifth window of the Qualifiers to secure their progression to the World Cup. They join Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Nigeria and Tunisia - who were the first six teams to qualify, all during the fourth window in September - and tournament hosts China.
These nine teams will be joined by 23 more from across all regions in this window of the Qualifiers and the sixth and final one (in February 2019) as the field for the first-ever 32-team World Cup continues to take shape.
FIBA