World Cup: What's next? Round two explainer

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Australia has qualified for the final 16 teams at the World Cup, but how does the next stage work?

Photo via @FIBAWC

The final 16 teams for the World Cup are set, and despite suffering a scare against Germany ahead of a do-or-die clash with Japan, Australia is through.

The second stage of the FIBA World Cup is set up in a way that’s unique to basketball. As opposed to working in a straight knockout format like we see in other sports, the top two from each group get shuffled into new groups, where once again only the top two teams progress.

Germany and Australia – who came first and second in Group E respectively – will face off with the top two teams from Group F – Slovenia and Georgia.

This, however, does not mean another nail-biting clash with Germany. Australia will only play against Slovenia and Georgia in this next stage.

The results of the initial group stage count too, so before a single game has been played the Boomers sit third in their group with two wins and a loss, while Germany and Slovenia occupy the qualification spots, having won all three of their group games.

The top two teams from each of the four groups qualify for the Final Phase. As it stands Australia will face one of Canada, Spain, Brazil or Latvia should they reach the final eight.

Australia will face Slovenia on Friday, September 1 (10.10pm AEST) and Georgia on Sunday, September 3 (5.30pm AEST).

The tournament is not over for teams like New Zealand and South Sudan who missed the final 16 teams though.

Both teams finished third in their groups with one win and will enter the classification groups to determine the finished positions of seventh through to 32^nd.

Like the Second Round groups these groups are formed with the remains of the pre-existing groups from Round 1 – except this time with the bottom two finishers.

South Sudan remains in a group with China and will face Angola and the Philippines, while New Zealand remains in a group with Jordan and will face Egypt and Mexico.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Congratulations to Australia, who have confirmed 2024 Olympic qualification at the <a href="https://twitter.com/FIBAWC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FIBAWC</a> ?<br><br>After breaking through for ???? ???? in Tokyo, the Boomers will be looking to level up ?? in Paris.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FIBAWC?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FIBAWC</a> x <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WinForAustralia?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WinForAustralia</a> ?? <a href="https://t.co/A9Fcu9F6YS">pic.twitter.com/A9Fcu9F6YS</a></p>— FIBA (@FIBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/FIBA/status/1696896726764806230?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>