Neemias Queta and Portugal made history on Wednesday at EuroBasket by advancing from group play to the knockout round for the first time in team history with a 68-65 win over Estonia. A stiff challenge awaits Portugal, however, in their first foray to the round-of-16: a showdown with Germany.
Portugal will face off with Germany, the winners of Group B on Saturday at 8:15 a.m. ET. The Germans are one of two teams that went undefeated in group play, led by former Celtics Dennis Schroder and Daniel Theis. Germany won by an average of 32.8 points per game in their five group play matchups, setting the stage for the tournament favorites to be massive favorites against Queta and Portugal. Germany is listed as 29.5 point favorites in the matchup in the knockout round matchup against a 2-3 Portugal squad.
Portugal will need a huge performance from Queta to pull off the upset against a Germany squad full of NBA talent including Magic star Franz Wagner. Queta has been a standout throughout the tournament, leading Portugal in points (15) and rebounds (7.4) per game in what has been a historic EuroBasket run for Portugal.
Queta will be looking for some redemption after being ejected from Wednesday’s elimination game against Estonia due to a pair of controversial technical fouls in the third quarter. Portugal was able to overcome his absence in the final two quarters to pull off the win against Estonia.
“Regarding that situation, I’m not going to say much out of respect for the game, the players, and all the coaches,” Portugal coach Mario Gomes said after the game, per EuroHoops. “I’ll just say that it’s very easy to make a call like that against a Portuguese player. We didn’t know what would happen with 15 minutes to play. I’m a coach, not a magician or a guru, but I knew that the team would react and not throw in the towel.”
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