Spain

Jorge Garbajosa: "Israel played very well for a long time. They moved the ball very well in the first half but then we responded well in the second half and were more on target which helped us turn the game around."

"We were not surprised by their start. Maybe we were not completely ready for the start of the game. I think they played their best first half of the entire tournament. They have a great team. It was not easy to control them because they were playing comfortably."

Jose Calderon: "It was a very difficult match. Israel always gives us a hard time and this time was no exception. It took us time to get in the game, but once we took over it was our game. The fans had a big part in our come back. When you get such support from the fans, you just can't let them down."

Coach Pepu Hernandez: "First of all we have seen how things got complicated at the start of the game. Good news was that the team was able to react to a situation where we had a lot of difficulty against a very smart team. They were passing and cutting and getting open shots. Important thing is we stayed calm and waited for our right moment to get back into the game and go on to win. Our offense in third and fourth quarters was very positive. Important to grow in the competition and in every game. We don’t have any rivals but we have a lot of good teams to go up against."

About resting Juan Carlos Navarro: "It was a precaution, there’s no problem as of now."

Israel

Ido Kozikaro: "We started great. Even we didn't expect to lead by so much against Spain, but in the last quarter they were much better and took over the game. We showed everybody that we can match with the world champions. Spain is the best team here, and for more than 25 minutes we were strong in the game. It shows how good we can play if we had had our full roster here. We had a great championship. It was very sweet to make it here, and the wins over Croatia and Serbia put Israel back on the map."

Yotam Halperin: "It's always a big challenge to play agains Spain, and we always seem to give them a hard time, although this time the last quarter made it look easy for them, which I'm sure it wasn't. We knew it's our last chance to qualify but also that we aren't favorites to win, so we decided to make the best to leave a good taste. Tomorrow the people in Israel celebrate the new Jewish year, and we wanted to make it a happy holiday. I hope that for at least 30 minutes we made it happen. Now we go back home to celebrate with our families, but we leave Spain with a smile. We managed to learn a lot of things here, but also win some games, and make it further than most people believed."

Coach Zvi Shref: "We wanted very much to qualify for the quarter-finals but to surprise and beat the hosts was not going to be easy. We had a long journey. We didn’t lose our place today, we lost it in the game against Portugal. Spain are great, they have a deep team, a great spirit, great coaching staff. After three quarters maybe some of our players lost their legs and it got tough for us. Last quarter was huge for Spain. Thanks for the hospitality and for this tournament and good luck the rest of the way."