Germany, Lithuania, Montenegro, Canada and Latvia have become the first to qualify for the next stage of the FIBA World Cup, which will be held in the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan, after adding their second victory in the preliminary round. The big news was the elimination of France.
In the face of the favorites of Group E, based in Okinawa, the Germans beat Australia 85-82 thanks to 30 points for Toronto Raptors goalkeeper Dennis Schroeder. The Germans, leaders in their region with 4 points, will conclude their participation in the group stage on Tuesday when they face Finland, who lost to Japan 98-88 on Sunday.
Group E leaders Lithuania and Montenegro qualified for Manila after beating Mexico 96-66 and Egypt 89-74, respectively.
Canada and Latvia did the same with mixed victories in Jakarta: the former thrashed Lebanon 128-73 and the latter beat France 88-86 with three free throws in the last 37 seconds of the match. With this result, the French, the current Olympic runners-up, were eliminated.
The first round of the World Cup will be held until next Wednesday, and the first two teams from each region will qualify for the next stage, where they will be divided into four groups of four countries to determine the eight teams participating in the round of 16.
The third and fourth places will compete in the same format to reclassify from the 17th place to the 32nd place. This stage will be held from August 31 to September 3. The elimination matches, the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals, are scheduled to take place from September 5 to 10, in addition to the crosses that will classify the teams between the fifth and eighth places.
Argentina, champions of the first World Cup in 1950, did not play in a World Cup for the first time since Colombia 1982, only four years after reaching their third final in China, which they lost to Spain.
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