Women's Eurobasket 2025: What to expect from Great Britain?
by Thobelani Moyo | by Cydias Aujard
The previous winners in the 39th edition of the FIBA EuroBasket Women, Belgium, are out to defend their title. However, the attention, this time around, is not on the champions, with the spotlight shining brightly on Great Britain, who are ranked 20th in the FIBA World Ranking.
Great Britain are making their third consecutive appearance in the FIBA EuroBasket Women after a disappointing campaign in 2023 that saw them finish in tenth place.
Can Anna Montanana's charges improve on that result and go all the way in this competition, or will their dreams be short-lived?
Great Britain: The Road To Hamburg
GB Women doesn't have any rich history in this competition other than the fact that they shocked the whole of Europe with their performance in the FIBA EuroBasket Women 2019. In that tournament, they reached the semifinal for the first time in the nation's history. However, Spain proved to be too strong for them as they lost 86-68.
This year, they are hoping to repeat the same feat, but this time, under the guidance of Anna Montanana. Montanana was put in office in 2024, succeeding Chema Buceta, who guided GB Women to their best finish in 2019.
Anna Montanana's charges are in the FIBA EuroBasket Women 2025 because of their strong performance in the qualification stages. They were placed in Group D and snatched second place, while Sweden won all six of their games and secured the top spot. This was enough to see them finish as one of the four best runners-up.
Check out Great Britain's recent finishes in the FIBA EuroBasket Women:
- 2011 - finished in 9th place
- 2013 - finished in 9th place
- 2015 - finished in 20th place
- 2019 - finished in 4th place for the first time in history
- 2023 - finished in 10th place
Group D: A Tough Group Stage in Hamburg
Great Britain are in Group D in the FIBA EuroBasket Women 2025. Their opponents in this group include the host nation, Germany, Spain, and Sweden.
Considered to be dark horses in this group, the two promotion spots are favored to be occupied by the host nation, Germany and Spain, with both teams as favorites to advance to the knockout stages. This goes to show the tough competition they have to navigate to repeat another history-making moment like that in 2019.
Check out the table below containing the accomplishments of teams in Group D:
| Country | EuroBasket Women Best Finish | Recent Performance |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | finished in 3rd place in 1997 | finished in 6th place in the EuroBasket Women 2023, and a year later, they made their Olympic debut |
| Spain | emerged as champions in 1993, 2013, 2017, and 2019 | finished as runners-up in 2023 |
| Sweden | finished in 6th place in 2019 | won six consecutive matches in the EuroBasket Women Qualifiers |
GB Women is set to lock horns with Spain on Thursday in the first round at Edel-optics.de Arena. This is a Group D opener. Stay up to date with this match and check out our livescore for Great Britain W vs Spain W here.
Players that can make a difference
Great Britain has a number of talented players within their ranks that can make a difference in the FIBA EuroBasket Women 2025. However, in this case, we would have to go back to the EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers to pinpoint the teams' primary offensive and defensive contributors.
For this, we have provided a table below highlighting their statistics in the EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers:
| Name | Games Played | Field Goal Percentage (FG%) | 3-point Field Goals (3PT%) | Free Throws (FT%) | Total Rebounds | Steals | Blocks | Assists | Points per game |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temi Fagbenle | 5 | 57.40% | 55.60% | 68.40% | 8.2 | 3.4 | 1.2 | 2.4 | 16.4 |
| Holly Winterburn | 5 | 53.80% | 18.50% | 91.50% | 5.4 | 2.6 | 0.4 | 8.4 | 13.6 |
| Savannah Wilkinson | 6 | 52.40% | 20.00% | 93.80% | 7.8 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 2.3 | 11.3 |
| Hannah Jump | 4 | 55.60% | 39.10% | 0.00% | 1.3 | 1 | 0 | 1.3 | 9.3 |
| Samantha Ashby | 6 | 44.00% | 38.90% | 100% | 3.2 | 1.7 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 8.8 |
| Shanice Beckford-Norton | 4 | 46.20% | 60.00% | 90.90% | 2.3 | 1.5 | 0 | 1 | 7.8 |
| Kirsty Brown | 6 | 42.90% | 75.00% | 80.00% | 2.3 | 0.8 | 0 | 0.8 | 5.2 |
Holly Winterburn is the only player unavailable for Great Britain in this competition. She is ruled out with an ACL injury for the remainder of 2025.
Final Thoughts
Great Britain had a great run in 2019 to reach their first-ever semi-final appearance in the FIBA EuroBasket Women. To be honest, they had a very easy group during that time. They were drawn in Group A, and it had Spain, Ukraine, and Latvia. Spain was the only team that made life difficult for them as they finished the group stage matches with a 2-1 record.
Analyzing their situation in the current tournament, you can't compare Group A in 2019 to Group D because their competition this time around is very tough. It will be a miracle for them to even finish in third place. However, as the saying goes, basketball is a game of runs!
