The game on Tuesday will take place at 2:30 pm at the Zalgirio pavilion in the city of Kaunas, Lithuania. The second 'trial by fire' of the national team happens the next day, Wednesday, against Slovenia.
According to Angop, this is the third time that the 'Palancas Negras' try to win a place in an Olympic competition through the pre-Olympic phase. In 2012, Angola failed to pass the tournaments held in Venezuela, and in 2016, they again failed in the trials held in Serbia.
The fact that the method of competition is complicated and the number of competitors is high are some of the biggest difficulties of the national team, which has not been present in an Olympic Games since 2008, in Beijing (China).
To pass to the next phase, the national team is obliged to win a game. In the next phase, the top two in the group will join the top two from group A (Lithuania, Venezuela and South Korea).
Then the cross-over system will be applied, that is, the first from group A will play the second from group B, and the first from group B will play the second from group A. Afterwards, the winners will play the final of the tournament and the winner of the race qualifies for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Competing for the four remaining spots in the Olympic trials are 24 teams.
