Spain’s basketball team has won the European Championship for the fourth time (Oscar Gonzalez/Getty)
elected crown Spain Basketball is the European champion for the fourth time in its history, after its deserved victory over the national team France, Sunday, in the final hosted by (Berlin Arena) in the German capital, with a score (88-76).
The Spanish national team was the best party throughout the match, and even managed to translate this superiority and ended the first quarter with a difference of 9 points (23-14).
Despite the Spanish sweep during the first half, where the difference sometimes reached 18 points, the French players rose up and were able to end the second quarter by a single point difference (24-23), and the first half ended with a difference of 10 points for the Spaniards (47-37).
At the beginning of the second half (the third quarter), a French “revolution” almost turned the match upside down, until the difference in some times was reduced to only 3 points. However, the experience and skill of the veteran Italian coach Sergio Scariolo, enabled the Spaniards to cross the third quarter to safety, despite being behind by a point (19-20), but by advancing the overall result with the same difference in the first quarter (57-66).
In the fourth and final quarter, the clear superiority of the Spaniards returned again, ending with a difference of 3 points, and it was announced that Spain would be crowned European champions with a total score of 12 points, with a score of (88-76).
With this result, the Spanish “Matador” returns again to win gold after an absence of 7 years, since its last title in the 2015 edition, the fourth time in its history after years (2009, 2011 and 2015), to break up the partnership with Lithuania, as the third most crowned team of the old continent after the title after The Soviet Union (14 titles) and Yugoslavia (8 titles).
It is also the second time that the Spaniards have overtaken the French in the title match, after this happened in the 2011 tournament in Lithuania.
For his part, the French team was satisfied with the runner-up role for the third time in its history in the tournament, to continue its absence from the podiums since its first title in 2013 at the expense of Lithuania. Germany won the bronze medal, third place, by defeating Poland (82-69) in the match to determine this position.