Jasmin Repesa, head coach of Croatian team, is distinguished with original style of communication to journalists. He not only does not avoid talking to my colleagues, but he comes himself and asks - how are you, how can I help you and so on. Though, he does this partly jokingly, but his such attitude is interesting. Before leaving Lasko by train, I saw him at the “Termana Lasko” hotel and shouted jokingly – “Croatia, Champion”. Jasmin understood my joke and expressed his desire to speak with me.

- Congratulations. You have left the group, but it was not easy for you. Do you believe that you go to the next level?

-Thank you very much. We knew, that it was a hard group and we had to fight against the rival till the end. Our team fought well and achieved success in the group.

- Your team almost lost against Georgia…How would you estimate the play of our team?

- Georgia has a good team, interesting and experienced basketball players are in your team, but you have a small bench, the load falls on 7 players. Two strong players, Pachulia and Shengelia, were not in EuroBasket, I know the play of both players and that’s why I say this. The play of our teams were one of the interesting, dramatic and tense in the qualifying stage of EuroBasket. Both teams could win. You team played well against Slovenia, but they lost at the final minute. After this Georgia lost twice. I am sorry that your team could not leave the group, though they had a chance.

Finally Mr.Repesa told me: I know that everybody loves football and basketball in Georgia. I also know, that Ivo Susak, Croatian specialist, was a head coach of “Dinamo” Tbilisi and head coach of Georgian football team for a while 10 years ago and everybody respects him in Georgia.

Tengiz Pachkoria, Lasko-Ljubljana, especially for www.worldsport.ge

Photos by Khatuna Gabitashvili

EuroBasket-2013 is presented by online bookmaker TBILISIBET.COM and Spanish sports clothing manufacturer Joma