The German basketball players missed a big sporting surprise in the first European Championship game in twelve years. Despite a strong start, the team of trainer Lisa Thomaidis lost 50:58 (23:27) against Vice European Champion France.
Germany had started with a 7-0 run and had offered the co-favorites a duel at eye level in the first group game into the fourth quarter. At the start of the second half, Germany didn’t score for a few minutes, but then fought back.
Best German thrower was Lina Sontag with ten points. “France are one of the favorites here and we showed a lot of heart today and gave the opponent a real battle,” Thomaidis said after the game. The trainer Thomaidis had to do without the ailing top player Leonie Fiebich and Alexandra Wilke at short notice. Fiebich in particular is considered a German hopeful at the tournament.
Under pressure against Slovenia
On the French side, who recently won silver at the European Championships five times in a row, Valeriane Vukosavljevic scored the most successfully with eleven points. The largely courageous start was a clear step up from the previous tournament in 2011, when all three group games were lost by a double-digit margin.
On Friday (6:00 p.m. / MagentaSport) the second group game is on the program in the Arena Stozice in the Slovenian capital. The Thomaidis team is then challenged against hosts Slovenia. The Slovenians lost 71:76 (38:33) against Great Britain at the start. The group winner from the four-person relay reaches the quarter-finals directly, the last one is eliminated.
