European Basketball Championship: Germany reaches semifinals after “disgusting hard-fought victory”

Franz Wagner flexed his muscles, Dennis Schröder gave his wife a relieved kiss: Basketball world champions Germany have cleared a major hurdle at the European Championships and, after a nail-biting quarterfinal, will play for the coveted medals. "I'm extremely proud," Schröder told RTL: "It was a complete team effort. The team is the player of the day."

Despite a gigantic show by NBA star Luka Doncic, the German team beat Slovenia 99-91 (45-51) in the quarterfinals and is now in the semifinals, just like in 2022 at the home European Championship.

"It was a very tough game, very emotional. We slowly battled our way through. We took advantage of the longer bench and made the important plays at the end," said interim national coach Alan Ibrahimagic after the highly explosive quarterfinal in Riga. The surprise team from Finland awaits in the semifinals on Friday (4 p.m./RTL/MagentaSport). Greece and Turkey will face off in the other semifinal (8 p.m.).

Exactly two years to the day after the sensational World Cup triumph in Manila, Franz Wagner, despite a poor record, was the top scorer on the German team with 23 points, which staged a major comeback in the heated match. Franz's brother Moritz, a TV expert on MagentaSport, said: "That was a truly disgusting hard-fought victory. Those are part of the package at championships like this."

Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers not only scored 39 points, but also added ten rebounds and seven assists, but received little support from his team, especially after the break. Germany has won all seven games at the European Championship so far and is considered the favorite for the gold medal after the eliminations of Serbia and France.

"Luka will score his points, we have to focus on ourselves and stop Slovenia as a team," Ibrahimovic said before the match. "It would be a big mistake to just focus on Luka."

And yet, from the very beginning, everything revolved around the Slovenian playmaker. Doncic quickly picked up two fouls, but then took over the reins and ensured that Isaac Bonga, who was responsible for his defense, also picked up two quick fouls.

Doncic scored ten points in the first quarter in front of 9,038 spectators. With other players who hadn't been particularly convincing in the tournament so far improving alongside him, Germany trailed by eleven points after the first ten minutes (21-32).

In the days leading up to the clash with Doncic and his teammates, there had been unusually high levels of unrest in the German camp. Initially, attempts were made to change the team hotel, citing the accommodations in the Latvian capital as too noisy and, above all, the food not good enough. Due to cost reasons, a move was not possible.

Then the partial withdrawal of national coach Alex Mumbru made headlines. The Spaniard, still in poor health following his pancreatitis, announced on Monday that he would hand over coaching duties to his assistant Ibrahimagic, as he did during the successful preliminary round in Tampere, Finland.

As head coach, however, Mumbru remained with the team and was involved in the preparation and follow-up. The team rallied behind the successor to World Cup-winning coach Gordon Herbert at a media briefing, thus lending support to the visibly ailing Spaniard.

During the match, Ibrahimígic was coaching the team. Mumbru sat behind him on the bench, watching the game from a seated position. Only occasionally did the Spaniard get up to give a few instructions.

The hustle and bustle of the Riga days didn't seem to do the team any good. Neither team seemed to be able to find a real flow in the second quarter. But at least the world champions fought back and erased a 13-point deficit. Schröder equalized at 39-39, but Germany was still down by six points at halftime. Doncic had already scored 22 points after 20 minutes.

At the start of the second half, Doncic quickly picked up his fourth foul. But Germany was unable to capitalize on it. Schröder and his teammates seemed hectic and never found their pace. The world champions continued to trail.

With the final buzzer of the third quarter, Tristan da Silva nailed a spectacular three-pointer from behind the halfway line, reducing the deficit to four points (70-74) heading into the final period. "That was definitely a very important moment for us," said Ibrahimagic.

Now the German team was finally wide awake. In the final quarter, the gold medal favorite appeared relaxed and turned the emotional duel with the 2017 European champions around.

RND/dpa