Match winner Niels Giffey struggled for the right words after 50 minutes of basketball crime. “Yes, wow,” the completely exhausted world champion from FC Bayern Munich stammered into the microphone in his first reaction.
At 101:100 (88:88, 74:74, 37:40) in the Euroleague, his team needed two overtime periods to win their visit to the French club Villeurbanne. “It was a long, long fight over the two extra periods. That was very good for us in a tough game. That gives us a lot of self-confidence,” said Giffey.
The 32-year-old veteran, who usually plays a supporting role, became a hero in the final seconds. Two seconds before the end, Giffey picked up an offensive foul and subsequently converted a free throw to make the final score 101:100.
Bayern hero Giffey beats “fantastic team”
“You want to hit the first one and miss the second one, but it went the other way around. We take it that way too. That was very important for us,” said Giffey.
The Euroleague game, characterized by tension and drama, was an advertisement for European basketball. Gianmarco Pozzecco, coach of the losing club from France, also saw it that way.
“We had a fantastic team, everything was perfect. My players never give up. They played a fantastic game, but the win was missing,” said Pozzecco. Bayern have won four out of ten games in the Euroleague so far. On Sunday (3:30 p.m. / Dyn) the Munich team will play against newly promoted Bundesliga club Rasta Vechta.