Florent Pietrus led the way with 19 points - including several high-flying dunks - and eight rebounds and Boris Diaw chipped in with 11.

Barrios finished as the top scorer for Venezuela with 15 points.

After the game, Salazara said he was proud of his team's overall effort.

"We did the best we could - not only today but throughout the tournament. We were lacking that little extra something, but we have to be happy enough with the effort that we gave."

Bergeaud emphasised that his team was better today because it was ready to play.

"We are happy to qualify in second place and meet the objective we set ourselves before the tournament. Tonight we respected Venezuela and came ready to play to the best of our ability. We had focused on doing well on the first two games of the tournament so much that we came into the second phase of the group stages a bit too relaxed."

"We showed tonight that we need a point guard and a center in order to play well. We didn't have that yesterday as Aymeric was out injured."

Jeanneau assured that he had fully recovered from the leg injury that kept him out of the loss to Lebanon and he would be ready for the game against Angola.

"My leg feels fine. I don't have any pain there anymore and I will be ready to play in the second round. I think the difference today was that we were a lot more energetic."

And energy was important as France once again struggled with their perimeter shooting, much to the bemusement of Bergeaud.

"I have no idea why we can't make outside shots during the game. We make them in training. It really has me flabbergasted because it's something I've never seen before in my life as a coach. It's not a problem with the shooting form of the players. It's to do with confidence."

"We will need to find our shooting rhythm for our game against Angola or else it will be a very quick game."