MADRID, 16 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The national teams of Spain and Germany will face each other in a new decisive match, something that had not happened for a long time between both teams, after the German moved away somewhat from the best since Dirk Nowitzki’s goodbye. Before their fight for the Eurobasket 2022 final, we review ten clashes that faced them.
1. Hit in Barcelona’92. Almost 30 years ago, Germany already defeated Spain in a great and also symbolic event such as the Barcelona ’92 Games. Led by their NBA player at the time, Detlef Schrempf, the Germans won 83-74 in their Olympic debut and complicated everything for a team that would later suffer the infamous ‘Angolazo’.
2. Germany closes the gap in Eurobasket’93. A year later, the two teams met again in a great tournament, the Eurobasket in which the Germans were hosts and they prevailed again in a dramatic quarter-final clash that Spain had won twice. First, with a 72-67 with 1:08 to go, and then, in extra time, with 77-72. Nacho Azofra did not hit from the free throw line and Christian Welp, at the buzzer, would culminate his enormous game (23 points and 16 rebounds). Germany would win its only gold against Russia.
3. The ‘golden juniors’ beat Nowitzki. The rivalry would increase in the 21st century. Germany found a star in Dirk Nowitzki and Spain in their ‘golden juniors’ led by Pau Gasol and Juan Carlos Navarro. In the fight for bronze in the 2001 Eurobasket, the German forward scored 43 points, insufficient against the center (31) and shooting guard (27), and a medal for Javier Imbroda’s team (99-90).
4. Defeat in the 2002 World Cup. A year later, another confrontation at a crossroads, this time in the quarterfinals of the World Cup in Indianapolis, where Spain attended with high expectations. But Germany took the victory this time in a less brilliant match (62-70) with Nowitzki waking up after the break (18 of his 20 points) and Pau Gasol not being in his numbers (14). The final quarter, 10-24, decided for the Germans, World Cup bronzes.
5. Germany leaves Spain without end in 2005. And there are not two without three. In the 2005 Eurobasket, the two teams met for a place in the final and the victory fell again to the German side, narrowly 74-73 and with Nowitzki’s final basket in a date in which Pau Gasol was not present .
6. Beating in the quarterfinals of the 2007 Eurobasket. Two years later, in the 2007 continental event where Spain was the host and favorite due to its current status as current world champion, Pepu Hernández’s team settled accounts in the quarterfinals with a landslide victory by 83-55 and leaving the Mavericks forward in just eleven points.
7. Victory in Beijing 2008. The two teams met again at the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008 and those trained by Aíto García Reneses came out comfortably victorious again by 59-72. The defense managed to stop Nowitzki again, again by eleven points.
8. Spain prevails in the 2011 Eurobasket. Already under the tutelage of Sergio Scariolo, Spain ran into Germany in the second phase of this European Championship full of doubts, but they knew how to get a valuable victory by 77-68 supported by the Gasol brothers , who combined to make 43 points (Pau 19 and Marc 24). It was a very disputed clash that was not decided until the final minutes.
9. Schroeder forgives in 2015. The star German point guard will not have good memories of the 2015 Eurobasket duel, also held on the same stage as this Friday’s match. It was the first phase and Spain was playing against a rival, where Nowitzki had re-enlisted after saying goodbye a few years ago, but the star was Schroeder. Scariolo’s team had the game won, but in an agonizing end it was close to going into extra time. At 77-74, Schroeder, a ‘nightmare’ the entire game, had three controversial free throws. After scoring the first two, he missed the last and decisive one.
10. Last triumph with exhibition of Marc Gasol. Spaniards and Germans had not met in a major international tournament since the 2017 Eurobasket, when they played for a place in the semifinals. The triumph was for the current world champion by 84-72 in a huge match by Marc Gasol with 28 points, 18 of them in the third quarter, 10 rebounds and a PIR of 37. Schroeder was the great threat (27 points and 8 assists) and is a survivor of that game along with Theis, Voigtmann, Lo and Thiemann.