Finland completed the biggest upset over Serbia by handing them a 92-86 defeat in 2025 FIBA EuroBasket on Saturday. With the win, Finland has qualified for the quarterfinals, while favorites Serbian is knocked out of the tournament. Lauri Markkanen delivered on the biggest platform of his career, and led the winners with 29 points, eight rebounds, and three assists.
Mikael Jantunen poured in 15 points, three rebounds, and three assists, while Miro Little and Elias Valtonen chipped in 13 points, each for the Finnish team. The team has never finished higher than sixth at the European quadrennial tournament. In order to make the Final Four for the first time in the history, they would likely be required to pull off another major upset in the quarterfinals. They will lock horns with the winner of France vs Georgia on Tuesday.
On the other hand, the Serbian team was led by Nikola Jokic as usual. The Joker finished with game-leading 33 points, eight rebounds, and three assists. He shot 9-of-13 from the field. Miami Heat’s Nikola Jovic contributed 20 points, four rebounds, and four assists. However, apart from them, no other Serbian managed to pull off an up to the mark performance.
The Serbian team felt their star guard Bogdan Bogdanović’s absence during the game. The team dealt with a major blow earlier during the group-stage win over Portugal as the Serbian captain was sidelined for the remainder of the tournament with a hamstring injury. Notably, Saturday’s loss was Serbia’s first defeat to Finland since 2009. They entered the tournament as one of the favorites but were knocked out in the round of 16 for the second straight time.
After the game, Serbia’s head coach Svetislav Pesic opened up on their loss and pointed out the reasons behind their exit from the tournament despite being favorites. He also said that as a team, they didn’t underestimate their opponents while crediting their offensive rebounding behind the win. Pesic said, “We didn’t underestimate Finland, they’re a fantastic team. What decided the game was their offensive rebounding. Finland deserved to win; it was a great game. If anyone thought we took them lightly, that’s not the case.”
Notably, on Saturday, Finland recorded 20 offensive rebounds as compared to Serbia’s 12. Not only this, but they overshadowed their rivals in almost all other categories including three pointers, free throws, and defensive rebounding. The Serbian coach also pointed out their injuries and said that as a team, they weren’t in good shape.
According to the 76-year-old, “We can look for excuses, but the reality is that you need to be in better physical shape at a tournament like this. We weren’t. Several players played through injuries. We also had a virus in the team — an illness. Nikola Jovic didn’t practice.”
“Those things are not excuses, but when you play against a team like this, at a tournament like this, you need to be physically stronger. You can’t say the players didn’t give what they could — you can always give more, but it just didn’t happen.”
In other EuroBasket games on Saturday, Turkiye defeated Sweden 85-79 to reach the quarterfinals. Lithuania beat Latvia 88-79 to book themselves a trip to the next round. In addition, Germany overcame early shooting struggles and a challenging first half to hand Portugal an 85-58 loss.
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