HAGEN (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers) - The German national federation DBB has announced that Frankfurt will host their major showdown against Serbia in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers in February.

The game on February 23, 2018 will be played at the Fraport Arena, which holds 5,000 spectators.

"We are pleased to bring this immensely important game to Frankfurt and will do everything we can to defeat the big favorites from Serbia in front of our basketball fans," said the DBB vice president Armin Andres. "Frankfurt is centrally located and can easily be reached from all areas in Germany. So we are expecting a full arena, which will give us the best-possible support in an another big step towards the World Cup 2019 in China."

Group G is the only of the eight groups in the European Qualifiers with two 2-0 teams atop the standings. Germany beat Georgia at home and won at Austria while Serbia will be playing their first road Qualifier after beating Austria and Georgia at home in the November Qualifiers.

This will be the third German national team game in Frankfurt after Germany beat the United States 86-85 on June 12, 1993 - shortly before Germany won the FIBA EuroBasket 1993 title; and Germany's 78-64 victory over Turkey on August 16, 2003.

Germany and Serbia have faced off 19 times in official matches since 2007, with Germany winning just four times. The last match-up came on August 20, 2017 at the Supercup in Hamburg - an 87-56 win for the Serbs.

FIBA