EuroBasket 2022, Quarterfinals, Tuesday, 13.09.2022
Even before the start of the European Basketball Championship 2022, many experts had predicted a strong tournament for the German national team. With NBA pros like Dennis Schröder, Daniel Theis or Franz Wagner as well as Alba Berlin star Maodo Lo, the DBB selection has the strongest squad in many years.
Added to this is the home advantage in Cologne and in Berlin. The experts were right. Germany played a convincing preliminary round and was only beaten by Slovenia with Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic.
In the round of 16 against Montenegro, coach Gordon Herbert’s team started like fire and was already clearly in the lead. In the end, Schröder and Co. made it unnecessarily tense, but still reached the quarter-finals with a score of 85-79.
On Tuesday evening, Greece will be a tough nut to crack. For the Greeks, NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo will be on the court. With the power forward of the Milwaukee Bucks, the Hellenes are also the favourites of the online bookmakers.
However, I also have a lot of confidence in the DBB team, which is why I’m betting on “Germany +8.5” at odds of 1.65 at Bwin for my Germany-Greece bet.
Greece is the only team still unbeaten at this European Championship. Even defending champions Slovenia lost to Bosnia in the group stage.
In the FIBA basketball world rankings, however, the two quarter-final opponents are neighbours in 10th and 11th place. In the meantime, the euphoria has also spilled over into free TV.
After the preliminary round of the German national team was previously only shown on Magenta TV, RTL has now secured the rights for the match between Germany and Greece.
If you believe the betting odds, Antetokounmpo and Co. are favourites to win with maximum odds of 1.47. But the DBB team may also win. But the DBB team can also hope for a win with the Germany-Greece forecast with the highest odds of maximum 2.90.
Germany currently has a promising basketball generation. The team showed this right from the start in the 76:63 European Championship opening victory against France. This was followed by compulsory victories against Bosnia and Hungary.
Against Lithuania, the DBB team had to go into overtime, but still came out on top in the end. Against Montenegro in the round of 16, Coach Herbert’s team played a great first half and was already leading by 24 points.
Then, however, Dennis Schröder and Co. switched down a gear and let the opponent come back into the game. In the final phase, the Montenegrins came within three points.
Germany allowed 55 points in the last two quarters. In the end, however, they still made it to the round of the last eight. Thus, the Germans can continue to dream of the longed-for medal at the home European Championships.
The victory against Montenegro was the fifth win at this tournament. A German team has not won so many at European Championships since 2007.
The biggest success is still the European Championship title in 1993 and bronze at the 2002 World Cup. After two disappointing finals in 2013 (17th place) and 2015 (18th place), the German team still managed to finish 6th at the last Euro-Basket 2017.
The quarter-finals ended with a 72:84 loss to Spain. The German basketball team can hope for Franz Wagner to play in the quarter-finals against Greece.
The 21-year-old NBA professional from the Orlando Magic was injured in the round of 16 against Montenegro, but trained with the team again on Monday.
Greece has already won the European Championship twice: in 1987 and 2005. The last medal was won by “Hellas” with the 3rd place at the European Championship finals in 2009.
Since then, however, they have always missed the semi-finals. The Greeks were eliminated three times in the quarter-finals: in 2011 against France, in 2015 against Spain and in 2017 against Russia.
In 2013, they were even eliminated after the second group stage, finishing bottom of the table. At the last three World Cups, too, the Greeks have finished no higher than 9th.
At Euro-Basket 2022, Greece had won Group C with five victories. Here they met Ukraine, Croatia, Italy, Estonia and Great Britain.
In the round of 16, the “Greek Freak” around Antetokounmpo and Co. had a surprisingly hard time against the Czech Republic. At the break, the favourites were trailing 41:45. The Bucks’ power forward also had a weak start.
The NBA superstar only got rolling in the second half, but then still added 27 points and ten rebounds to his tally.
Summary: In the group game against Slovenia, Germany had already had big problems against NBA superstar Luka Doncic. Here they tried to defend the NBA pro mostly in a 1:1, which didn’t really work well.
The Mavericks player scored 36 points and had ten rebounds. Now the next superstar from the best basketball league in the world awaits with Antetokounmpo. Here, the DBB selection has to defend with its entire defence.
The Czech Republic showed how it can be done and played a zone defence on Sunday. Antetokounmpo only scored a meagre four points at the break. I believe that the DBB team will definitely be able to keep the game close.
My tip for the match between Germany and Greece is therefore: Germany loses with a maximum difference of eight points (handicap +8.5)!
