But Les Bleus were dealt a big blow when Parker broke a bone in the index finger of his right hand in their last friendly before the tournament.

Everyone thought France's chances of going far in this tournament were solely dependant on Parker's play.

And yet here is Claude Bergeaud's side, heading to the quarter-finals - a better result than their 13th place in 1986 - without their star playmaker, who ironically said he would return to Japan to support his team if they got this far in the competition.

In Parker's absence, every player on the team has had to step up his role on and off the court.

Mickael Pietrus is one player who has taken on more of a leadership role in the point guard's absence.

FIBA correspondent Simon Wilkinson caught up with him after France's 68-62 win over Angola.

FIBA: This is the first time for every player in this competition. How does it feel to get to the last eight?

Pietrus: It's great to get to the quarter-finals. We forget all the tough times we've had to go through to get this far. Today we showed what we were capable of doing if the team played together. This shows that France is a good team and that we can go far in the big tournaments.

FIBA: Once again your defense was the key to your success. How hard is it to play hard-nosed defense for a full game?

Pietrus: It's very hard. It may look easier than it is, but it takes a lot of energy to do it for 40 minutes. But we were able to do it and it allowed us to win a big game today.

FIBA: So France's game starts with defense every time?

Pietrus: Yes it is. Defense is what we always have. Our offense may not always work according to plan, but as long as we can stop our opponents, we have a chance to win games. We are lucky to have players who are willing to play tough defense and I hope we remember that we won this game by stopping Angola rather than by executing perfectly at the offensive end.

FIBA: And it helps that you were able to make shots from the perimeter.

Pietrus: We had a tough time against some zone defenses in the group games where we couldn't make shots from outside. Today we were able to knock them down.

FIBA: You will play either China or Greece. Do you have any preference?

Pietrus: No not really. I haven't actually thought about it yet to be honest. I think we'd like to enjoy today's win first.

FIBA: If you end up playing Greece in the quarter-finals, it's a re-match of last year's EuroBasket semi-final. Would you look forward to that?

Pietrus: Well we'd like to get revenge against Greece but they're a very tough team. They are the European champions and it would take a very good game on our part to beat them. But as I said, we don't have any preferences as such for the next round. Whoever we play, we're going to get ready to play them hard and stick to our goal of going as far as we can in this competition.

FIBA: Today the players who really stepped up for France were guys that people may not have heard of - Mamoutou Diarra and Aymeric Jeanneau. Can you talk about their performances today?

Pietrus: For years people have talked of France as a team with a few NBA players and nothing more. Today Mamoutou and Aymeric among others proved them wrong once more. Diarra made two big three-pointers in the fourth quarter and Aymeric made the free throws down the stretch. It shows that every player from first to last is very important to the success of this team.