Basketball Länderspiel Deutschland - Spanien

In the organizer's words:

World champions against European champions!

Germany against Spain! World number three against world number five! Germany with NBA stars Dennis Schröder (Detroit Pistons) and Franz Wagner (Orlando Magic), Spain with NBA forward Santi Aldama (Memphis Grizzlies), plus numerous top-class EuroLeague players on both sides, all in a unique atmosphere in front of 19,000 spectators ... You can't get much more than that and that's why we highly recommend this game to all German (and international) basketball fans.

It starts on Saturday, August 23, 2025, at 7 p.m. in the LANXESS arena - THE basketball "temple" in Germany since EuroBasket2022 at the latest. That's when the two basketball heavyweights with medal ambitions for EuroBasket 2025 meet. A few days before the start of EuroBasket, the game will be the ultimate acid test. It is not to be missed. The two teams will meet for the first time two days earlier at the Movistar Arena in Madrid.

Spain always strong

Both teams face very similar conditions over the course of a basketball year. The NBA and EuroLeague players are usually not available for the qualifiers in February and November, meaning that the two head coaches Álex Mumbrú and Sergio Scariolo have to field completely new teams. The national teams at summer events such as the Olympic Games, World Cups or EuroBaskets then look very different. Both teams had their difficulties in the recent qualifiers for EuroBasket 2025. Spain started 0:2 and, thanks to the contribution of a number of EuroLeague players in the final window, ended up with a 3:3 record and second place in Group C behind Latvia (6:0). The DBB team also struggled through qualifying, but picked up four wins and won Group D ahead of Montenegro and Sweden (3:3 each).

The Spaniards (almost) always perform strongly at major events, such as at EuroBasket 2022, when they won the title against France. Most recently at the Olympic Games, however, they were eliminated after the preliminary round. A win against Germany's quarter-final opponents Greece (84:77) and two defeats against Australia (80:92) and Canada (85:88) were ultimately not enough. In the three-way tie with Australia and Greece, the Iberians narrowly lost out and were eliminated from the group in fourth place. As is well known, Germany reached the semi-finals and finished fourth in Paris. They still have a score to settle with their opponents in Cologne from the EuroBasket semi-final in 2022, when Germany lost 91:96 to Spain.

"A real treat"

"It's the last test game and we should be close to our best performance at this point. We're playing against an enormously strong opponent. The memory of losing the 2022 EuroBasket semi-final in Germany is still alive and this game reminds us of that again. It will be a special game for me. We won a lot of games with Spain and I know coach Scariolo very well. It's always special for me to play against Spain," said national coach Álex Mumbrú.

"Our last test before EuroBasket! And then against the reigning European champions Spain in Cologne. It's sure to be a real treat when the two teams face each other with their best line-ups. Once again, we'll be returning to the incomparable atmosphere of the LANXESS Arena. We're all really looking forward to it," says Armin Andres, DBB Vice President for Competitive Sports.

"Germany versus Spain - this encounter stands for international basketball at the very highest level. After the unforgettable EuroBasket 2022 in Cologne and the completely sold-out international match against France last year, it is a great pleasure for us to host such a top match again. The fans can look forward to a top-class duel and a rousing atmosphere in the LANXESS arena. Our thanks go to the German Basketball Federation for once again placing their trust in us," says Stefan Löcher, Managing Director of the LANXESS arena.

33 official matches

The international match history of Germany and France consists of 33 official matches. There is still room for improvement, as the German national team has only won five games so far (basket ratio 2,243:2,625). The last victory against the Spaniards was 20 years ago, when Germany prevailed 74:73 in the semi-finals of EuroBasket 2005 in Belgrade. The last time the two teams met was in the EuroBasket semi-finals in Berlin on September 16, 2022, with Germany losing 91:96. A German men's national team has played in Cologne twelve times so far, winning eight games.