Casketball European Championship
Germany disenchantes hosts – and gets group victory
Updated on 03.09.2025 – 9:31 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
In the last group game it went against the host. Germany showed a mixed performance – however, the victory was not in danger.
Fifth game, fifth victory for the German national team at the European Basketball Championship: The reigning world champion played big against host Finland and ended up winning 91:61 (50:36). The team around captain Dennis Schröder started furiously before some mistakes followed. In contrast to opponents of Finland, Germany kept ahead with an individual class in attack. NBA-Jungstar Franz Wagner was again one of the great guarantors for success with 23 points.
“It was really fun,” said Wagner in Magenta Sport. “We did not find our rhythm in the first quarter, but then we got it better. Now we are looking forward to Riga.” Team colleague Isaac Bonga was also satisfied. “It is very difficult to play against us. We are offensive and defensive in a good mood.”
In the round of 16, outsider Portugal is waiting on Saturday. The DBB team had already booked the round of 16 by their third win, Portugal made it to the last minute through a success in the decision-making game against Estonia (68:65). It is the first participation of the Iberer in an EM final round.
At the preliminary round, assistant Alan Ibrahimagic also looked after the team of national coach Alex Mumbru, who spent five nights in the hospital after an “acute abdomen”. The Spaniard therefore followed the game from the team hotel that was only five minutes walk and is on the way of improvement. Already against Portugal he could stand on the sidelines again – before the teams travel together to Riga on Thursday from Tampere.
The German captain Schröder, against whom there had been racist hostility in the Lithuanian game, was witnessed to the parquet before the game showed how almost 13,000 people showed their solidarity with the 31-year-old. Before the game, red cards with the lettering “Stop Racism” (stops racism) were in all places – these were raised up on command collectively.
Schröder initially had to struggle in terms of sport. The leader of the world champion has seven quick points – but he also allowed himself three ball losses early. Such negligence could not be observed in the German team for the first four victories – all of which were very clear.
While Co-captain Johannes Voigtmann fails for the rest of the EM because of a knee surgery, Maodo Lo returned to the team. In the second quarter, the DBB team listed by Wagner managed to calm the initially loud audience through strong offensive actions. Wagner already had 15 points in the account at half -time. After the change of sides, Germany continued to pull away and showed the Finns in phases.