Kevin Durant and Lebron James contest for a rebound with Bruno Caboclo. GETTY IMAGES

Host nation France pulled off a major upset by beating silver medal favourites Canada to advance to the semi-finals. They will play against Germany who overcame Greece to make it to their first ever semi-finals in the Olympic Games. Serbia came from 24 points down to beat Australia in overtime. USA beats Brazil easily

The semi-finals of the men's tournament will be played on Thursday. Only one of the qualifiers will miss out on a medal. At 17:30 local time, Paris Bercy will host the France-Germany match with the smell of local revenge. At 21:00 there will be another match that also took place in the group stage, USA-Serbia. 

Before that, the quarter-final matches of the women's tournament. USA are also the favourites. This Wednesday the matches will be played with the same schedule as Tuesday in the case of the men. At 11:00, Serbia-Australia, at 14:30, Spain-Belgium, at 18:00, Germany-France, and at 21:30, Nigeria-USA.

Comfortable USA win over Brazil

In the quarter-finals, the USA had the easiest game of the tournament so far (87-122). At no point in the game was there any doubt that it would be a walkover for Steve Kerr's team. The Americans were scoring with ease.

The USA coach took advantage of the game to distribute minutes among his players. Only Anthony Edwards and Kevin Durant played more than 20 minutes. Even so, six players of the team scored more than 10 points. Devin Booker was the top scorer this time, with 18 points.



On Thursday they will face Serbia again. They beat them in the first game of the tournament by 110-84. In less than 48 hours it will be seen if the European team can be more competitive and make life difficult for the favourite team.

Brazil leave the tournament without having left a great sensation. They qualified for the quarter-finals thanks to the points difference they made against Japan in the last minutes of that game. Today Bruno Caboclo was once again their most outstanding player, with 30 points.

France pulls off a surprise against Canada

Canada was an unrecognisable team for much of the game. France showed more desire, more intensity and more accuracy throughout the first half. Only the talent of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander left the game open. Isaia Cordinier was the most pleasant surprise for the home team, with a performance full of motivation to take advantage of the bad version of the opponent.

The other surprise was that Rudy Gobert hardly played. Vincent Collet, who has been France's coach for 15 years, relied more on Mathias Lessort for such an important game. And it worked out well. The Euroleague champion with Panathinaikos brought his usual effort and was a problem for the Canadian defence.

The first quarter ended with a score that summed up what was seen on the court: 23-10. And France continued to take advantage of the lack of Canadian defensive tension, while Gilgeous-Alexander tried to keep the gap from growing. At half-time, 45-29.



Jordi Fernandez, Canada's coach, tried to instil encouragement in his players and make them see that by defending better they would have a chance to come back. A change was seen in the second half. A more competitive version, but without Canada's talent appearing as it is supposed to for this great team, which won bronze at the 2023 World Cup after beating the USA.

Although Canada improved and Wembanyama was not scoring, he was doing a lot of other things in the game and had teammates scoring to keep France ahead on the scoreboard. Guerschon Yabusele and Evan Fournier also played important roles.

The game was still exciting in the final quarter. France could not get away, and Canada was not getting any closer either. Paris Bercy was living each basket of their team as a great triumph. But there was still the fear that the Canadian talent would be connected to the game two or three minutes in a row. But it didn't happen. Jamal Murray had a very bad game, and R.J. Barrett couldn't keep up with what Canada needed either.

A three-pointer by Fournier from almost half-court sealed the game in the final minute. An exchange of baskets and free throws and France took the win 82-73. They will fight for the medals. It is Germany's turn in the semi-finals. They lost 71-85 to the Germans in the last game of the group, but they will try to make things different in the next game.

22 points from Yabusele and 20 from Cordinier, plus 15 from Fournier, and a Wembanyama who only scored seven points, but contributed 12 rebounds, five assists and three steals. For Canada, only Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored 27 points, was outstanding.



Germany beats Greece again

The first match of the day was very interesting. Germany and Greece met in the quarter-finals of Eurobasket 2022 and it was a high-scoring encounter. The Germans' outside shooting was decisive. This time it was different. Greece went into the game with a lesson learned. If you allow Germany to attack comfortably, not many teams can beat them. They came out much more attentive. The Greeks needed a great defence to be competitive.



Greek coach Vassilis Spanoulis, a European basketball legend, aimed to cut off the fluidity of Dennis Schroder, the German point guard. In the first quarter, everything went well. Greece had a 10-point lead (11-21). 

From the second quarter onwards, the picture changed and Germany put on its best defence of the tournament. If you can contain Giannis Antetokounmpo, you can strangle Greece. That was the plan they put in place.

Once the game changed direction, Germany's statistics kept getting better and Greece's got worse. The Mediterranean team began to look harmless. They could not find an answer to the defence set up by German coach Gordon Herbert. This trend was gradually reflected on the scoreboard until a stratospheric three-pointer from Schroder sealed the game with just under two minutes to go. 

In the end, a 76-63 victory. 18 points from Franz Wagner and 13 from Schroder, but also important were the defensive and rebounding efforts of Daniel Theis, Isaac Bonga, Moritz Wagner and Johannes Thiemann. In Greece, 22 points from Antetokounmpo was again very lonely.

Germany reached the Olympic semi-finals for the first time. They are living the best moment of their history, as demonstrated in 2023 when they won their first World Cup. They have built a very solid and well-balanced team, with their star player, Franz Wagner, still growing. The current squad could be almost complete by Los Angeles 2028, so years of more success for German basketball may lie ahead.



Antetokounmpo is once again without a medal. He already tried out for Greece at the 2014 and 2019 World Championships and at Eurobasket 2015 and 2022. This year he played his third Pre-Olympics and the first where he qualified for the Games tournament. But he has once again missed out before the semi-finals, as he has done on every previous occasion. He is the biggest star Greece has ever had, but they have not been able to take advantage of him so far.

Serbia come from 24 points down against Australia

Svetislav Pesic's team had to put in probably more effort than they expected. Patty Mills and Josh Giddey dismantled Serbia in the first half, to the point of having them, as they say in boxing, almost knocked to the sailcloth.

Mills' show between the end of the first quarter and the beginning of the second is one of the most striking performances of these Games. After a few minutes on the bench, he replaced Giddey and scored 16 points in five minutes of play. There he was replaced by Giddey and on the Aussies' next attack, a three-pointer by Duop Reath made the score 20-44. There were seven minutes left before half-time.

It was unrealistic to think that Australia's scoring would remain at that level. Serbia worked on defence and found baskets with several of their players, led by Nikola Jokic. At half-time, 42-54. The score was no longer so unfavourable.

Nikola Jokic takes a shot over Jock Landale. GETTY IMAGES
Nikola Jokic takes a shot over Jock Landale. GETTY IMAGES

Serbia needed only the third quarter to complete the comeback. With 3:48 to go in the third quarter, the Europeans were already ahead (61-60). From then on, it was a close game until the end. Australia had lost their big lead, but they were not going to give up. Vasilje Micic threatened to break the game in the final minutes, but Mills appeared again to make a sensational basket with 1.4 seconds left to send the game into overtime. 

In overtime, the Serbs were hesitant as Australia started scoring fluently. Then Jokic appeared to be the leader of the defence and then put his team ahead with two consecutive baskets. On the next attack, the Australians committed an absurd turnover and Bogdan Bogdanovic sealed the game with two free throws (95-90).

Jokic again showed what a player he is. He had 21 points, 14 rebounds, nine assists, four steals and two blocks. The other two stars of the team were also decisive. Bogdanovic had 17 points and Micic 14, with six assists each.

Australia bowed out despite 26 points from Mills and 25 from Giddey. They came very close to eliminating one of the clear medal contenders. They have interesting players to remain competitive in the next Olympic cycle. Although it will be difficult for Mills to make it to Los Angeles 2028, as he turns 36 next Sunday.