Germany first team to improve to 7-0 in World Cup Qualifiers

TALLIN (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers) - Germany became the first team with a 7-0 mark in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Qualifiers after easing past Estonia with a 86-43 win in their Group L in Europe on Thursday. 

Dennis Schroder paved the way for Germany with 18 points, 10 assists and 6 rebounds while Danilo Barthel added 12 points and 8 rebounds and all 12 players got on the scoresheet.

The way in which the Germans achieved the feat in Tallinn was especially satisfactory for their head coach Henrik Rodl. 

"It’s never easy to win on the road. Congratulations to my team, the focus that they brought to this game. We played very, very hard on defense. I thought we were well prepared," he said. "

We kept our opponent that I know is a very young team to 43 points and you can see they are still learning the game in some ways. But you also have to make them make mistakes, and I thought that our team did that today."

The Germans can make it 8 for 8 on Sunday at home against Israel in Leipzig.

"It’s a good win for us but we will remain focused for the Sunday game to stay undefeated in this qualifying tournament," Rodl added.

While Germany can be pleased with the result, they know the real goal is punching their ticket for China - and an 8-0 record would go a long way in their quest to return to the World Cup after missing Spain 2014.  

"The game was very important for us but now we are going to focus on our next game, which is already very soon," said German center Maik Zirbes, who had 12 points and 5 rebounds against Estonia. 

"It's a job half done and we are very focused to see what happens on Sunday," added Rodl. 

 FIBA