On the first day of the Women's Basketball Olympic Qualifying Tournament, all 16 teams have taken to the court. The Chinese women's basketball team made its debut with a 47-point advantage over New Zealand and got off to a good start. As the world's superpower team, the United States team, they almost capsized in the gutter, and finally won by only 2 points. Spain and Serbia, the two major European powerhouses, suffered a black start in their debut, and were upset by the lower-ranked teams, among which Serbia, the world's 10th (women's basketball bitter host), lost to the 25th-ranked German team, becoming the biggest upset since the start of the Olympic Championships.
In this Olympic qualifying tournament, in the debut competition, the strong teams basically won. Among them, the Chinese team won against New Zealand, and although the United States team was almost upset, it finally defeated Belgium by a narrow margin by virtue of its strong strength. France defeated Puerto Rico, Nigeria, Canada, Australia and other teams, all of which easily defeated their opponents and won their first Olympic qualifying round.
If you want to say that the first round of the Olympic qualifying tournament is not upset, it is probably only Japan and Spain, Serbia and Germany. Japan is currently ranked 9th in the world, Spain is ranked 4th, and Europe is ranked 1st. In terms of rankings, Spain is undoubtedly superior. However, from the point of view of the game process, Spain was almost suppressed by the Japanese team in this game, except for a small victory over the opponent in the last quarter, the remaining three quarters of the game, the score of the single quarter was lost to the Japanese team, and finally lost to the opponent with an 11-point disadvantage, which was a big upset.
Of course, the biggest upsets are Serbia and Germany. As we all know, Serbia has always been a European powerhouse, currently ranked 10th in the world, and they were also one of the bitter masters of the Chinese women's basketball team. In the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the Chinese team won all three games in the group stage and won the first place in the group to advance to the knockout round. However, in the knockout round, the Chinese team was defeated by Serbia and missed the opportunity to advance to the semifinals. As a result, Serbia has also earned a reputation as a strong team killer.
Germany, by contrast, are slightly less well-known, ranking only 25th in the world in the FIBA rankings. But in the face of Serbia in this game, they were like chicken blood, and they established a 7-point lead in the first quarter. At the end of the first half, Germany led Serbia by as many as 15 points, 36-21. Although Serbia played a wave of 25-17 in the third quarter, it had no choice but to dig too deep in the first two quarters, and finally missed the opportunity to reverse and was blown up by the German team.
For Serbia, their qualification situation has become precarious after losing this game. Among the opponents in the same group, there are two strong opponents left: Brazil and Australia. If Serbia wants to qualify for the Olympics, they need to beat at least one of the teams or win them two games in a row. In terms of current strength, Brazil and Australia are both above them. If Serbia suffers a third defeat in a row, they will miss the Olympics altogether.