Late show sees Serbia beat Czech Republic to book EuroBasket semi-final

Serbia pulled away from the Czech Republic in the closing quarter to book a semi-final spot ©AFP/Getty Images

Serbia reached the semi-finals of EuroBasket for the first time since 2009 after they ended the Czech Republic's challenge by recording an 89-75 victory over their rivals in Lille.

After Spain's closely-fought win over Greece yesterday the crowd were enthused by the prospect of another thrilling tie, and neither side could be separated by the close of the opening quarter of the match with the scores level at 21-all.

Miroslav Raduljica and Zoran Erceg then took the match into their own hands to help to break the deadlock in the second period with the latter in particular working wonders as he contributed 11 points for Serbia to help his team into a 45-42 half-time lead.

The match remained within reach though for the Czech Republic as they fell only one further point behind heading into the finale of the game, owing much to the work of Tomas Satoransky and Jan Vesely, with the latter having spent the best part of his career trying to win matches for Serbian club side Partizan.

However, the Czech resistance came to an end as Raduljica and Erceg started scoring again regularly as wave after wave of Serbian attacks came towards their opponents' basket.

It meant that when the buzzer sounded for the conclusion of the match Serbia's lead stood at a resounding 89-75 and although he was only the fourth highest scorer on their team, winning head coach Sasha Djordjevic singled out the display of Milos Teodosic.

"Teodosic is an amazing player, he does things in practice that I have never seen in my life," Djordjevic said.

"His passing ability is amazing, he has put a big stamp on the last decade with the way he plays, his vision of the game is unbelievable."

Lithuania's additional fitness helped them overcome Italy in overtime ©AFP/Getty Images

The quarter-final matches ended with an stunning affair between Lithuania and Italy as the two teams played out a superb evening tie in the French city.

After the first period ended 21-20 to the 2013 silver medalists Lithuania, they would have been hopeful of extending their one-point advantage but the Italian team, who have impressed throughout the tournament, doggedly stayed in contention.

The crowd were eager to see a second half as good as the first with the score standing at 37-36 to Lithuania and they were treated to two further quarters of stunning action, with Italy making up the point deficit in the dying embers of the game to send the match into overtime with the score at 79-79.

Italy though ran out of steam in the additional period as Lithuania's additional fitness paid dividends to earn a 95-85 win and book a semi-final clash with Serbia.