News: Les Bleus start EuroBasket smoothly (+28 against Belgium)!
August 28, 2025
Alexandre Lacoste
Interview Frédéric Fauthoux: « A somewhat strange game, but we saw some good things »
French National Team - Head coach Frédéric Fauthoux reflects on France's victory against Belgium (92-64) in their first EuroBasket 2025 game.
Photo Credit : FIBA
The French national team started their EuroBasket with a 92-64 victory against Belgium. Right after the final buzzer, new head coach Frédéric Fauthoux spoke to the French press. While describing the game as somewhat « strange » due to its rhythm, he was reassured by his team’s attitude and everyone’s involvement.
Frédéric, you come out of your first game with a comfortable win. What can you tell us about this first game?
First, indeed, it’s the win we wanted. Maybe not the game we wanted, because it was perhaps a bit strange. At least, that’s the impression I got. But I think in what we’re looking for, in terms of rotations, the intensity we want to produce, an open game and also in offense, we saw some good things. And especially, the involvement of all players. And that will be one of our big strengths. We have many players scoring over 10 points. It’s a first game. And the second one is coming soon. We’ll prepare for it.
Were you reassured by what you saw today, the intensity, what you produced defensively and collectively?
Yes, absolutely. That’s exactly it. Though in many areas, we can do better. So we’ll do better in 48 hours. […] In this sport, we can always improve everything. In offense, in defense. Stopping targeted players, for example.
Everyone scored at least two points. Is that satisfying?
Yes, of course. Because the ball moves well. And each player is given responsibility. That’s what we want.
A word about Bilal’s performance, particularly his spectacular double block on Ismaël Bako in pure vertical leap.
He’s been consistently good defensively since the start of preparation, he showed it again today. It’s the kind of action that energizes the whole group.
Bilal Coulibaly’s #EuroBasket debut is one to remember 🫡 pic.twitter.com/N092aKPRv0
— FIBA EuroBasket (@EuroBasket) August 28, 2025
His way of covering space and being aggressive like that…
These are qualities that almost all French team players have. We need to make stops and be able to run the floor. I hope that throughout the tournament, it will pay off even more.
How do you evaluate tonight’s competition against Belgium? Should we be cautious because they clearly weren’t one of the group’s stronger teams?
Yes, I think so. I don’t know what other teams did in other groups. But it was still a first game. Of course, this wasn’t the great Belgium team, they were missing players. Us too. We needed to win the game and we did. Then, true, regarding the opponent… we couldn’t mess up against them, and we didn’t.
You took many 3-point shots. Was this intentional today or did their defense simply offer those choices?
Their defense, going under the pick and rolls, gave us the opportunity to shoot a lot from there. So that’s what we took.
The arena was very empty (officially 2,400 spectators), not much was happening.
That’s typical of European championships, maybe also in countries like this, they’ll wait for Poland’s games, I think. No matter. We’re not here to see if the arena is full or empty. We’re here, as I said, to play game after game and win as many as possible, at least in the first phase.
« France – Slovenia? An exceptional player on the other side »
Was this part of the strange or weird aspect you described at the start?
No, it’s the game rhythm that was a bit surprising. But that’s also, I think, what the game produced. They wanted to keep the ball from us for a while. They wanted to have longer possessions. We adapted to that.
Can you tell us a bit about the next game, against Slovenia this Saturday?
We know it will be an important game because it’s Slovenia, because there’s an exceptional player on the other side. Now, I think we shouldn’t target some games as more important than others. It will be a game against a tougher opponent. So it’s up to us to be even better, as I said earlier, in all aspects.
Can you elaborate on Luka Doncic. We all know he lost 15 kilos over the summer. The game will be even more centered around him. How do you approach the matchup against him?
I’m not going to beat around the bush. I haven’t discussed this game at all with my staff yet, because we didn’t want to overlook today’s opponent. Then, there might be specific things we’ll do against him. Because we’ve watched him in some games. It’s true that even before, he dominated the game and he might do it even more. But tonight’s games will give us a lot of information. He’s one of the three best players in the world. It’s impressive. We might not have that kind of player in this European championship. However, I think we can be much stronger collectively. And that’s what we’ll need to do.
Personally, how does it feel to coach, to prepare a game plan against one of the three best players in the world?
Just, it reminds me that I saw his first game at Real Madrid. I watched it with my son and my daughter, Marine. We said to ourselves, hey, maybe this one will be very, very good one day. And he is very, very good (laughs).
Gabriel Pantel-Jouve est le fondateur et rédacteur en chef de BeBasket, qu’il anime depuis 2010 (sous le nom de Catch & Shoot). Passé par l’Ecole Publique de Journaliste de Tours, puis deux universités en Amérique du Nord, il a pu développer son expertise sur le basket français, de la Ligue Nationale aux divisions amateurs, durant ces 20 dernières années. En parallèle, il est aussi engagé dans le développement de clubs du côté de Montpellier.
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