The German wheelchair basketball players have claimed their first victory at the Paralympic Games in Paris. In an atmospheric game against France, the DBB team took revenge for their defeat at the Olympics a few weeks ago
Victory number one for the German wheelchair basketball team at the Paralympic Games. Germany beat hosts France 72:64 (36:34) in the Bercy Arena, where Dennis Schröder’s basketball world champions had only just missed out on a medal, and are now in second place with one win and one defeat.
As with the 55:76 win against co-favorites Great Britain at the start, the start of the game against France was a failure. The team of national coach Michael Engel was 4:13 behind after less than five minutes, but fought its way back into the game and went into the half-time break with a lead.
Germany ultimately prevailed in an inconsistent second half, led by top scorer Matthias Güntner (22 points). His goal with the final buzzer secured Germany the better basket ratio over the Canadians, who were level on points.
The victory was important for the German team in order to secure a good starting position for the knockout round. All teams in the two groups of four will reach the quarter-finals first. The team finishing bottom of the group will face the winner of the parallel group, while fourth place would mean a clash with perennial favorites USA. Germany will face Canada in their final group game on Monday (4.00 p.m.)