The German basketball players will face Spain in the semifinals of the European Championship. The world champion is in transition, but has a coaching fox on the bench, still plenty of experience and a lot of self-confidence.
If you asked experts about the top favorites before the start of the European Basketball Championship, the name Spain rarely came up. Although the Iberians are the current world champions, they are in a state of upheaval.
After winning the title in 2019, superstars like Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol and Sergio Llull said goodbye to the national team. It was the definitive end of the “golden generation” and a huge loss of quality on the floor and depth in the squad. In addition, game designer Ricky Rubio is injured.
Brothers Hernangomez the new stars
And yet the team of Italian coach Sergio Scariolo made it to the semi-finals. The new stars and leaders are brothers Willy and Juan Hernangomez. Willy is in the US professional league NBA both New Orleans Pelicans under contract, Juan runs for the Utah Jazz on. Usman Garuba makes his money at the Houston Rockets. Captain Rudy Fernandez plays for Real Madrid. In general, the majority of the squad is active in the domestic ACB league.
Schroeder has respect
That’s why Germany’s star Dennis Schröder has great respect. He knows the Hernangomez brothers from the NBA, he played with Garuba in Houston, says the playmaker: “They are physical, a good team. They have a lot of good role players who can really score 20 points.” Spain is indeed difficult to calculate. In the win against Bulgaria, for example, seven players scored in double figures.
Bankruptcy against Belgium
Otherwise things didn’t always go smoothly. Although won “La Roya” the preliminary round group A, but had to accept a surprising defeat against Belgium. In the round of 16, Spain then had to go into extra time against Lithuania and were also challenged in the quarter-finals against Finland.
highly decorated
But Spain enters the semi-finals knowing that they are Spain. The team has always won a medal at the European Championships since 2007, with three gold medals (2009, 2011, 2015), one silver and two bronze medals.
The Spaniards won the world title not only in 2019, but also in 2006. At the 1984 Olympic Games in los Angeles, 2008 in Beijing and 2012 in London there was a silver medal. In addition, the domestic ACB league is considered the strongest in Europe.
The biggest star of the current team is probably the coach. Scariolo won all three European Championship titles and was also on the line for the 2019 World Cup triumph.