By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Cologne – Since the beginning of the EuroBasket game of Bosnia and Herzegovina against France, the latter were getting fired up by the quite loud support of the crowd in Lanxess arena. Not French fans, but Lithuanians.
Lithuanian fans were producing quite the noise, booing for Bosnia and cheering for France with a passion. They were highly invested in the game for a very simple reason: If Bosnia had won then the EuroBasket adventure would’ve been over for Lithuania.
“I thought that was awesome,” French national team captain Evan Fournier said. “I’m sure they googled how to say thank you in France before the game. I think it was awesome, the way they cheers for us. Obviously they had reasons.”
France guard/forward Terry Tarpey thought it was pretty cool, revealing that his grandfather from his mother’s side is Lithuanian.
Terry Tarpey probably made his Lithuanian grandfather proud pic.twitter.com/XDRwRV1u9a
— Antonis Stroggylakis (@AStroggylakis) September 6, 2022
Fournier admitted that his team benefitted from the Lithuanian chants. “When you play the game especially early, sometimes you re a little flat. You like the energy to start the game,” the New York Knicks player said. ” It was great that they cheered for us and we got that energy.”
Fournier said who considers Lithuanian fans the best in Europe and he’s far from the only one honestly. He added that he would’ve liked for his national team to receive a similar kind of support in numbers by the French crowd.
“If we could had the same attendance it would be great for sure,” Fournier said.