The selection of the German Basketball Federation (DBB) will meet at the European Championship (August 27 to September 14th) in the preliminary round for host Finland, Lithuania, Montenegro, Sweden and Great Britain. The preliminary round games of the DBB team take place in the Finnish tampere.
This was the result of the draw on Thursday (March 27, 2025) in the Latvian Riga. The groups were drawn by two European basketball legends: Nikos Zisis, 2005 European champion with Greece, and Rudy Fernandez, captain of the Spanish European Championship team from 2022.
The DBB team caught a very feasible group – and also avoided a possible duel in the preliminary round with the Slovenes around Luka Doncic. The national coach àlex Mumbrú says: “As always, there are only strong preliminary round groups. But I don’t want to talk much, but rather let my team speak in the field at the European Championship.”
The toughest competitor in the duel for group victory is certainly lithuania, already preliminary round opponents at the past European Championship, hosts Finland with NBA-Center Lauri Markkanen and Montenegro are strongest. Sweden and Great Britain are at most granted outsider opportunities. Mumbrú says: “It is good that we already know Sweden and Montenegro from the qualification. Lithuania is very difficult to play and Finland is also strongly assessed in front of their own audience.”
The DBB is also lucky with the tournament half
The DBB team was not only lucky with a view to the preliminary round: the co-favorites Spain, France, Greece and Slovenia are all in the other half of the tournament and can become German opponents in the quarter-finals at the earliest.
Group C with defending champion Spain, Greece, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Italy is by far the most occupied.
DBB team is aiming for the next medal at Eurobasket
Mumbrú should rely on the core of the 2023 world championship team. In addition to playmaker Dennis Schröder, the coach puts great hopes for young star Franz Wagner as well as the veterans Daniel Theis and Johannes Voigtmann. Moritz Wagner will lack the team due to injury.
The German team around captain Schröder is aiming for the next medal at Eurobasket 2025. In the past EM 2022, the DBB team had won the bronze medal as a host with games in Cologne and Berlin. A year later, the winning of the world championship title was achieved under Gordon Herbert. After the Summer Olympics in France, which ended with a fourth place, the Spaniard Mumbrú had taken over the office of national coach.
Mode at Eurobasket – four Preliminary round groups Plus Ko round
The format has remained the same compared to the past tournaments: the 24 participating nations are distributed over four groups of six teams each. The four best-placed teams after the preliminary round reach the round of 16, from there it continues in KO mode to the final. Dennis Schröder and Co. would have to play nine games up to a possible EM title.
World Champion Germany Top Setting – such as Spain, Serbia or France
The 24 teams were distributed to six loose pots during the draw in a seed list based on the FIBA world rankings. The German basketball players, reigning world champions and currently world ranking third parties, were among the top seed teams and ended up winners of the silver medal at the Olympic Games in Paris at the draw in pot 1, as well as defending champion Spain, vice world champion Serbia and France.
Preliminary round in four nations, Ko games in Riga
As with the past tournaments, there are four organizing nations, each house a complete preliminary round group. Group A games with host Latvia are played in Riga. Group B with Finland plays in Tampere, Group C with Cyprus in Limassol and Group D plays in the Polish Katowice. From the round of 16, all games will take place in the arena in Riga, which offers 14,500 fans.
The four hosts of the tournament, automatically qualified for the European Championship, were also allowed to choose partner associations that were already assigned to the respective groups in advance. As a result, it was already clear that Latvia was playing against Estonia. Finland has Lithuania as a guest, Cyprus plays against Greece and Poland against Iceland.
Due to the distribution of the teams on the Lostöpfe and the selected partnerships, it was also clear before the draw that Slovenia will compete in Group D in Katowice.
According to the FIBA decision, it was also excluded that Turkey will play the preliminary round games in a group with Greece in Cyprus, due to the political tensions on the two-part island. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is only recognized by Turkey.
Live broadcast on TV and stream
All 76 games of the tournament are broadcast live at the Streaming Portal MagentaTV and Magenta Sport, and the games of the German team are also free of charge. In addition, the games of Germany’s basketball players and the European Championship final will be shown live on Free TV at RTL.