Impossible is not French! The Blues produced another incredible performance to overcome Germany and validate their ticket to the Olympic final.

A victory that Nicolas Batum commented on without filter after the final whistle.

They say that revenge is a dish best served cold and it has never been truer than during this France-Germany semi-final of the Olympic Games.

The two teams had already crossed paths in the group stage in a match dominated head and shoulders by Dennis Schröder and his ilk. Suffice to say that Vincent Collet’s men had only one idea in mind, to get back at them.

And after 40 hard-fought minutes, it was the Tricolores who validated their passage to the final (73-69). Already immense against Canada in the quarter-finals, Guerschon Yabusele, Isaïa Cordinier and Mathias Lessort have once again done a monstrous job.

Nicolas Batum, who himself made some big plays, was honest after the final whistle on France Télévision:

Nicolas Batum praises the fans after the victory

We had to play 40 minutes like against Canada. Well, the first three weren’t that good, we played 37 instead.

Everyone, like Matthew who didn’t play the last game, who came on and had a big impact in the third quarter when we made the run, Rudy who came on and made an impact, Victor who isn’t good offensively but has a real defensive impact.

Everyone is there, everyone plays and it’s great.

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The match was off to a bad start since the Blues were quickly trailing 12-2, but they literally took out the barbed wire in the second quarter with only 8 small points conceded in ten minutes. Enough to catch up with the score at half-time before gradually taking the upper hand.

Defense was therefore the watchword for the EDF, but Batum also wanted to salt the public:

Vincent Collet has been saying it for weeks! We had to do it, that’s all. We’re the players, we didn’t do it. French basketball needed a big kick in the ass.

When you get a big kick in the ass like last week, when we grouped together and told each other things… What we got was intense! But that’s it, that’s what we want.

We couldn’t be the only (French) team not to be good, we saw what was happening, we saw the swimming, the juodo, the BMX, all the sports we saw… and when we arrived here, it’s true that we felt the magic and it’s great. (…) You have a little pressure because you don’t want to disappoint, they are really great.

We played a great game and here we are, playing against the world champions who have won 13 official matches in a row. They are not easy to beat anyway! We did it tonight, now there is one left.

With world champion Germany out of its way, the French Team is therefore returning to the final of the Olympic Games like three years ago.

Whether it is the Serbian or Team USA, the opponent will be warned: these Blues have heart and energy to spare.