HERAKLION (2015 FIBA U19 World Championship) - The Quarter-Finals of the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship are upon us and there are some intriguing match-ups awaiting the spectators at Heraklion Arena with four teams still undefeated.

The first of the four games - all of which will be broadcast live on Livebasketball.TV (registration required, no subscription needed) - has Turkey facing Australia, followed by Croatia versus Canada, United States against Italy, before Spain battle hosts Greece.

Turkey v Australia
The 2014 U18 European champions Turkey may be undefeated but they have been far from dominant. After building a big lead in their opener, they allowed Argentina to come back late and make it close. Turkey had trouble putting away Spain in their second game and then needed a late run to beat China. In the Round of 16, Turkey had real struggles against Iran, never really being able to pull away. 

That up-and-down play might come back to bite Turkey, who will need to remain concentrated for a full 40 minutes to beat Australia. 

The Aussies lost their first two games against Canada and Italy by a combined five points including a game deciding layup in the final second against Italy. Australia picked up their first victory over Tunisia and then pulled off the surprise of the Round of 16 in beating Serbia by double digits. 

Croatia v Canada 
Croatia have to come into the game wondering how many players will be available as they continue to lose one player after the next. Dragan Bender and Ante Zizic are out for the rest of the tournament while Ivan Vranes missed Croatia's last game. Still, Croatia are playing well, having only lost to the United States. Otherwise they beat Egypt and Iran in the group stage and then fought past China in the Round of 16. 

Canada will be closer to the level of the USA than China and the showdown promises to be an intriguing one. 

The Canadians are still undefeated, fending off Australia in their opener before man-handling Tunisia by 57 points. Canada then surprised some by beating Italy as emphatically as they did, finishing atop their group following a 24-point win. And then the North Americans hammered Korea by 36 points to book their spot in the Quarter-Finals.

United States v Italy
United States have not yet been seriously challenged in rolling to four straight victories by an average winning margin of 35.5 points. The closest game came against Croatia - a 22-point victory for the Americans. They blasted past Iran in their opener and beat Egypt by 42 points before cruising past Argentina in the Round of 16 by 48 points.

Italy have just one loss thus far which came at the hands of Canada after beating Tunisia and Australia in group play. After losing by 24 points to Canada in the game to decide the group winner, Italy bounced back to beat Dominican Republic by nine points to reach the Final Eight. 

Spain v Greece 
The Quarter-Finals will close with the hosts Greece taking on Spain. The Spanish opened the tournament by pulling away late for a win over China before losing to Turkey. Spain finished the group stage with a 24-point victory against Argentina, setting up a Round of 16 match-up with Egypt which they won unconvincingly by seven points. 

Greece - playing all their group games without leader Vasilis Charalampopoulos - started their quest with a blowout of Korea before having to fight past Dominican Republic by just five points. They then used a fourth quarter run to knock off Serbia. They were not challenged in the Round of 16 with a 52-point win over Tunisia as Charalampopoulos played his first significant minutes after an ankle injury just before the tournament started.

FIBA