The German basketball players secured group victory with a gala performance against Olympic hosts France and impressively underlined their gold ambitions. The world champions won the eagerly awaited duel with the French in the cauldron of Lille with 85:71 (48:27) and thus finished the preliminary round undefeated.
In front of 27,000 spectators in the sold-out Stade Pierre-Mauroy, the two NBA pros Franz Wagner and Dennis Schröder were the outstanding players in the team of national coach Gordon Herbert, each scoring 26 points. Germany put in an outstanding performance, especially defensively – apart from a short phase in the last quarter – and held the selection around prodigy Victor Wembanyama to just 27 points in the first half.
Draw on Saturday evening
Who the German selection will face in the quarter-finals on Tuesday in Paris will be decided late on Saturday evening. The draw for the quarter-finals will take place in Lille 45 minutes after the last preliminary round match between Serbia and South Sudan (9 p.m.).
The qualified teams will be divided into four pots. Possible German opponents are currently Greece with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Serbia with Nikola Jokić or South Sudan. Top favorite USA will initially avoid Germany if the NBA stars also win their group on Saturday as expected. In this case, a duel between Germany and the USA could take place in the final at the earliest.
Mega atmosphere in Lille
There was an incredible atmosphere in the Lille stadium. When swimming star Leon Marchand won his next gold medal in Paris, around 200 kilometers away, ten minutes before the game started, the spectators went completely wild for the first time. An hour before the game, the fans in front of the converted football arena had already started singing the Marseillaise.
“These are the duels we play basketball for,” said Schröder before the duel. “27,000 people are against you. There’s nothing better than playing against the favorite in their own arena,” said the point guard. “It will be a mega experience. There will be a lot of fire in it,” predicted center Daniel Theis.
Dennis Schröder and Franz Wagner stand out
And the German team was really looking forward to this experience and showed its best tournament performance so far. The world champions were wide awake from the start, cheered on by part of the women’s team, who had also already qualified for the quarter-finals. Schröder and Franz Wagner in particular were really excited about the duel with the hosts.
The two NBA pros scored the German team’s first 18 points together. It was not until Isaac Bonga, another German player, scored from the free throw line to make it 19:16. After the first quarter, Germany had built up a small lead (24:18), partly because Wembanyama was not a decisive factor for the French team and did not score a point in the first ten minutes.
Basketball players live in the Olympic Village
In the second period, Germany really turned things up and led the French at times. It became noticeably quieter in the arena, and at halftime the German Basketball Association team was leading by an incredible 21 points (48:27).
The brief discussions about whether or not the basketball players would be allowed to live in the Olympic Village in Paris seemed to have spurred Schröder and Co. on rather than bothered them. The question had already been resolved long before the game began: the basketball players would be allowed to live in the athletes’ village.
Against France, Schröder and Co. were not in any serious danger after the break, even though the hosts reduced the deficit again. The German team now travels to the French capital with a lot of confidence.
Source: www.sport.de
