Russia head coach David Blatt is urging his team to do their talking on the court when they host Belgium in a EuroBasket qualifying game on Wednesday.

Blatt wants his players to show just why they are leading the way in Group C when the Belgians arrive in Perm.

He told Sport Express: "We must win every game and also the Belgium team manager has said some insulting things in the press about Russia.

"We must react to that, of course through our performance."

		Victor Khryapa could miss the rest of Russia's qualifying games due to an ankle injury.

Russia suffered their only defeat of the qualifying campaign to date when the teams met in Leuven, going down 91-80 on September 3 as Axel Hervelle scored 24 points and pulled down 11 rebounds for the Belgians.

Russia team manager Sergei Tarakanov is hoping his side will learn from their mistakes.

He said: "It was a lack of experience that cost us in Belgium. We can't blame either the home supporters or the referees.

"I must salute a very good display by the Belgian team. It was a great surprise that they managed to beat us."

Tarakanov remains confident, however, that his country can top the group.

"In my opinion, Russia and Czech Republic are the main candidates to win the group anyway," he added.

Russia head into the contest on the back of Saturday's 76-70 away triumph in Hungary.

However, they will be without Victor Khryapa, who sustained a foot injury in Debrecen and could miss the rest of the qualifying games.

Blatt said: "I'm happy with the team's performance.

"The whole mood has been spoiled by Khryapa's injury but, even without him, our performance didn't lose its rhythm.

"Take a look how well our young players displayed - Fedor Dmitriev, Anton Ponkrashov and Sergei Bykov.

"They played very well in spite of it being a very important game and not ideal conditions."