Ireland target an upset against Latvia in double-header
Ireland head coach James Weldon is hopeful that his side can pull off an upset win over Latvia when their FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2025 qualification campaign draws to a close at the National Basketball Arena in Dublin on Sunday evening.
Ireland prop up Group E after four qualifiers, with this week’s double-header beginning with a daunting trip to Chalon-sur-Saone to face France.
A winless run through the qualifiers has to be contextualized by the calibre and ranking of the opposition Ireland have faced.
Weldon’s charges are 85th in the FIBA rankings, perched between Albania and Armenia, while group rivals Israel occupy 47th place, Latvia sit in 28th, and high-flying Olympic silver medallists France are the third-best side in the world.
Speaking at a media briefing on Tuesday, Weldon adopted a realistic approach to their upcoming away day before the clash with Latvia.
"We’ve a lot of experienced players, who have been through the mill before, so we’ve got up to speed pretty quickly," the head coach said of his team’s preparations.
"It’s obviously pretty tough to get up to the speed of France, but we'll do our best to try and compete and set ourselves achievable targets in that game.
"We're very much looking forward to Sunday as well, and we're very excited about playing at home, and no better place to get you geared up for that than playing the Olympics silver medallists.
France ran out 100-48 victors when the teams met in Dublin in Ireland's second game of the qualifying campaign, but the gulf in class wasn’t too apparent early on, and Weldon hopes to build on the promise from the initial skirmishes in that contest.
"I suppose November 12 months ago, we were maybe three, four minutes into the second quarter and we were in the