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// 20.01.2005

France point guard Tony Parker believes his country has nothing to fear in the group phase of this year’s European Championships.

Les Bleus will face Greece, Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in Group C in the first stage of the competition, which will be held in Serbia & Montenegro from September 15 to 25.

Parker, who missed out on the qualification phase last year to dedicate himself to his club side San Antonio Spurs, may now return to international duty.

“This is a solid group but that's the Euro and the level is correspondingly very high,” Parker told L'Equipe.

“I prefer our group to that of Russia, Germany and Italy. My only regret is to be confronted again with Bosnia and Slovenia.

“We will have to beat the Bosnians in order not to be trapped by the Slovenians who are getting stronger and stronger.

“Greece, meanwhile, offer a very physical game, but in that area we have nothing to fear.”

France coach Claude Bergeaud is also optimistic about his side's chances of progressing to the quarter finals.

“Our group looks very even and very well balanced,” he said.

“But it is also true that we will have to fight hard to win the matches, especially against Greece and Slovenia.

“Bosnia are inferior to us but they can still pose us a lot of problems.

“The draw leaves us some optimism because we won't be playing against the big nations in the early stage of the competition like Italy, who were the runners-up at the last Euro and during the Olympics.

“Spain and Germany are also very strong and it's good to avoid them as well as Lithuania.”

Bergeaud is expected to announce his squad at the start of April.


 
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