Eurobasket 2025: German basketball players move into the European Championship final

The world champion now also reaches for the European Championship title. Two years after the sensational World Cup triumph by Manila, the next big coup for German basketball players is very close. The team around NBA star Franz Wagner and captain Dennis Schröder won his semi-finals against outsider Finland with 98:86 (61:47) in Riga and has been back in an EM final for the first time in 20 years. At that time, Germany won silver with Dirk Nowitzki.

In the final, the team of interim national coach Alan Ibrahimagic meets the winner of the second semi -finals on Sunday (8:00 p.m./RTL and Magenta Sport), in which Greece and Turkey are facing each other today. Against Finland, Schröder and Wagner were the best German launchers with 26 and 22 points. Schröder also contributed twelve templates in front of 10,047 spectators.

EM semi-final 2022, World Cup title 2023, fourth Olympic in 2024 and now in the European Championship final-Germany’s basketball players are experiencing the most successful era in its history. “We are one of the best teams in the world, we have proven enough,” Wagner said before the semi -finals. He and his team impressively confirmed the impression in the Latvian capital.

In the group phase in the Finnish Tampere, Germany had already outclassed the co-EM host with 91:61. But that didn’t matter in the heads of the Germans. “The victory from the preliminary round no longer counts. Finland will have the first game in the head, they will want to reciprocate,” said Center Daniel Theis.

The situation was strongly reminiscent of the disappointing Olympic Games last year. At the Olympics, too, the German team was celebrated in the preliminary round against host France after a gala, in order to fail in the second meeting with the French in the semi -finals and later stand up without a medal.

“I still remember the games against the French. We took it a little bit on our shoulder and switched off – this time we shouldn’t happen to us,” Captain Schröder warned.

And yet the world champion slept again in Riga as in the two games. The Finns, who were in the semi -finals for the first time at an EM, started with euphoria and pulled driven by thousands of Finnish fans in the arena to 14: 6.

In contrast, not much went together in Germany, Franz Wagner put his first four throws next to it. But the German team stayed calm and increased. Schröder met with a threesome, then Wagner stuffed the ball into the basket by dark. The German attack machinery was now rolling.

At the fins, however, the litters were no longer as good as in the first five minutes. After the first quarter, Germany was ahead with four points (30:26) and continuously expanded its lead afterwards. In the meantime, the world champion had left 19 points (49:30). Suddenly Wagner even hit his litters from a distance – Germany led to the break with 14 points.

After the change of sides, the Finns tried everything again and shortened to six points (73:79). Germany wobbled briefly, but remained cool and, led by Schröder, who already had a double double in the middle of the third quarter.

And that despite the fact that Ibrahimagic only had ten players at their disposal because, in addition to Johannes Voigtmann (knee operation), Justus Hollatz also failed with a foot injury. However, both followed the final entry from Deutsche Bank, where the still healthy national coach Alex Mumbru also sat.

Note: This article has been updated.