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Russia to face Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2017 FIBA EuroBasket qualifiers

The qualifying tournament for the 2017 EuroBasket will be hosted by Turkey, Romania, Finland and Israel between August 31 and September 17 this year

© Stanislav Krasilnikov/ITAR-TASS

BERLIN, January 22. /TASS/. Russia’s national basketball team will play its group stage matches against teams from Sweden and Bosnia and Herzegovina to qualify for the 2017 FIBA EuroBasket Championship.

The German city of Munich held the Draw process on Friday for national teams selected to participate in the 2017 FIBA EuroBasket Qualifiers, placing the competing nations into separate groups.

According to the official website of FIBA EuroBasket: "The 27 teams were drawn into seven groups [six groups of four teams and one of three] with the winners of each group, plus the four best second-placed teams set to advance to the EuroBasket Final Round, which will take place in September 2017."

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The Russian national team jointly with Sweden and Bosnia and Herzegovina, were placed in Group C, which is the only group consisting of three teams.

In line with current regulations, as stated on the official website, "Each team faces each of their group opponents both at home and away."

The qualifying tournament for the 2017 EuroBasket will be hosted by four European countries, namely Turkey, Romania, Finland and Israel between August 31 and September 17 this year.

A total of 11 out of 27 national teams will advance to the 2017 EuroBasket Final Round, where, according to the official website, "they will join host countries Finland, Israel, Romania, Turkey; FIBA EuroBasket 2015 finalists and guaranteed Rio 2016 contestants Spain and Lithuania; and Olympic Qualifying Tournament participants Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia and Serbia."

Last year the Russian national team failed to clear the group stage of the 2015 FIBA EuroBasket Final Round and subsequently lost its chance of traveling to Brazil's Rio de Janeiro for 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

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