Paris (AFP)

The French basketball team inherited a tricky group at Euro-2022, in particular made up of Lithuania and the Slovenian defending champion, on Thursday during the draw in Berlin.

Poured into Pool B, the 2013 European champions will also face Germany, one of the four host countries of the competition scheduled from September 1 to 18, 2022, Hungary and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The match against Lithuania will be a revenge for the triple European champions, beaten by the Blues in the final in 2013 and more titled since 2003 despite a new final in 2015.

However, partners Jonas Valanciunas and Domantas Sabonis suffered to qualify, narrowly coming off against Denmark on the final day of qualifying.

The clash with Germany, defeated by France in the round of 16 of the last edition of the Euro in 2017, will also have a particular flavor for Vincent Collet's players, as will the shock against Slovenia by Luka Doncic, which opened its European prize list four years ago.

In Pool A, the Spanish world champions, present without interruption on the continental podium since 2007, will challenge Georgia, Turkey, Russia, Belgium and Bulgaria.

As for Serbia, finalist of Euro-2017 and silver medalist in Rio in 2016, it was placed in group D along with the Czech Republic and Poland.

Initially scheduled for 2021, the competition has been postponed by one year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics (July 23-August 8).

The European Championship will take place in four countries: Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic and Georgia, with a final phase in Berlin.

The four groups of Euro-2022:

GROUP A

Georgia

Turkey

Spain

Russia

Belgium

Bulgaria

GROUP B

Germany

Lithuania

France

Slovenia

Hungary

Bosnia and herzegovina

GROUP C

Italy

Estonia

Greece

Croatia

Ukraine

Britain

GROUP D

Czech Republic

Poland

Serbia

Finland

Israel

Netherlands

© 2021 AFP