Israel will need to thrash the Czech Republic and have other results go its way on Saturday night if it's to advance directly to EuroBasket 2009. The national team enters its final qualifier on the back of the encouraging 88-74 victory over Bosnia on Wednesday, but knows only an extremely unlikely combination of results will see it progress to the European Championships as one of the three best runners-up. There are three scenarios in which Israel can reach its ninth straight EuroBasket tournament without needing the additional qualifying tournament. Israel coach Tzvika Sherf needs Tony Parker's France to lose at home to Turkey and for the combined margin from his side's victory and France's loss to be 30 points or higher. If that seems improbable, the next two scenarios are virtually impossible. Israel can also advance if Pini Gershon's Bulgaria loses at home to Serbia and the combined margin of the national team's win and the Bulgarians' defeat is at least 55 points. The final scenario is if Macedonia loses at home to the weak Estonia and the combined margin of Israel's victory and the Macedonians' defeat is more than 53 points. At least Israel can console itself with the knowledge that a victory against the Czechs will give it another chance of reaching the championships next summer via the additional qualifying tournament. A loss to the Czechs and a Bosnia home victory over Great Britain, however, could also see Israel drop to the relegation round from which two teams will be demoted to Division B of European basketball. "We feel bad that our fate is out of our hands, but we got ourselves into this mess," said Israel center Yaniv Green, who scored nine points and grabbed 12 rebounds in the victory against Bosnia. The Czechs, who thrashed Israel 91-70 when the teams met last week, were the first team to suffer a home defeat in Group D on Wednesday, losing 67-63 to Great Britain. Jiri Welsch, who scored 20 points and passed eight assists in his side's win over Israel, will be the star of the Czechs show once more on Saturday. Lowering his averages of 19.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists will be of crucial importance to the blue-and-white's hopes of claiming a victory on Saturday. Lior Eliyahu, who has been Israel's best player of the qualifying campaign, averaging 16.0 points and 6.0 rebounds, was outstanding against Bosnia on Wednesday, scoring 21 points, grabbing 17 rebounds and passing six assists, and believes a good start against the Czechs is essential if the team is to have any chance of booking its place in the EuroBasket tournament on Saturday. "We started the game against Bosnia poorly and we can't afford to do that against the Czechs. We need to learn from this game," he said. "The team played very well against Bosnia and there's no reason why we can't do so again on Saturday."
