The German basketball players missed a surprise when they returned to the European Championship stage on Thursday evening (06/15/2023). In the first game of the preliminary round group C, the team of national coach Lisa Thomaidis had to admit defeat to the Vice European Champion France in Ljubljana with 50:58 (23:27) after a big fight.
The best German thrower was Lina Sontag (10), on the other side Valeriane Vukosavljevic (11) collected the most points.
The DBB team started furiously with a 7:0 run, while the French countered with a 7:0 run. But the underdog stayed brave and ended the first quarter with a 16:11 lead.
Lot open long
In the second period, France played with more pressure, the next 7-0 run turned the game around for the first time (18:16). But the German players kept the match open and, despite being twelve points behind (23:35), they didn’t let themselves be shaken off – and eight minutes before the end they even reduced the score to one point (45:46). Then the French sprinted away decisively with nine points in a row.
The DBB selection is back in a EuroBasket for the first time in twelve years and is an outsider. In the next two group games on Friday against co-hosts Slovenia (6 p.m.) and on Sunday against Great Britain (12.15 p.m. / MagentaSport), at least one win is required to advance to the knockout phase.
Group winners directly in the quarterfinals
The four group winners advance directly to the quarter-finals. The two teams behind can also qualify for the round of the top eight in an intermediate round.