European Championship: Belgium too strong: EM-out for German basketball players

Germany’s basketball players have clearly missed the first move into the European Championship semi-final in 28 years. The team around the two WNBA professionals Leonie Fiebich and Luisa Geiselsöder clearly lost 59:83 (36:41) in Piraeus against defending champion Belgium and now has to go to the unpopular placement round. On Friday it goes against Turkey. Against Belgium, Geiselsöder and Frieda Bühner, each with 13 points, were the best German throwers.

Germany had traveled to Greece with a lot of confidence after the two victories in the preliminary round in Hamburg against Sweden and Great Britain. The victory at the Olympics in Paris last year also encouraged. But after a balanced first half, the team of national coach Lisa Thomaidis against Belgium was without chance after the change of sides. Belgium’s superstar Emma Meesseman (30 points) in particular could not be stopped.

“The first half was good, we defended very well. After the break, they had their course, we couldn’t counter it,” said Emily Bessoir at Magenta Sport. “The third quarter broke us a bit.”

The German team initially showed no respect for the big favorite. The selection was particularly safe from the distance. The first 15 points all resulted from three -point throws, three of them from Geiselsöder. In the meantime, Germany was even four points ahead, after the first quarter it was 21:21.

In preparation, the German team had received two clear defeats in Belgium. However, Fiebich and Geiselsöder were still missing because they were only left from their WNBA clubs to Europe shortly before the tournament begins. “We look forward to playing with the complete squad against Belgium,” Thomaidis said before the game.

And in fact, Germany was able to keep up with Fiebich and Geiselsöder much better. At the beginning of the second section, Fiebich finally hit her first throw. It ran according to plan for the German selection.

But in the middle of the second quarter, the Belgians clearly attracted the pace. In Germany, Alexis Peterson and Alexandra Wilke had to go off the field in phases. In these phases it became clear that according to the cancellation of Satou and Nyara Sabally and the injury of captain Marie Gülich, the German squad did not have the necessary depth to conquer the top European teams.

At half -time the gap was only six points, but after the change of sides, Germany could no longer keep up. Belgium pulled away to 18 points in the third quarter (63:45), so the game was decided early. Especially from a distance, the throw no longer wanted to fall by the German team.