Two years ago, Jose Manuel Calderon missed a three-pointer at the buzzer as Spain lost to Germany in the 2005 EuroBasket semi-finals.

On Thursday the star point guard made sure it wouldn't come down to the final shot, scoring 17 points in spear-heading the world champions' 83-55 drubbing of Germany.

		Jose Calderon led the way for Spain with 17 points.

Rudy Fernandez and Juan Carlos Navarro both added 12 points for the superb Spain attack, shooting 57% and the Spanish defense held Dirk Nowitzki to 11 points and the German offense to 33% shooting in their quarter-final showdown in Madrid's Palacio de Deportes.

"We are where we wanted to be, which is the semi-finals. We have the crowd behind us, we are playing as one and we have to take advantage of this," said Calderon.

"We never looked at the score today. All we wanted was to put pressure on Germany and take advantage of their mistakes. Our style is to play with the same intensity for 40 minutes. We have played really well on defense, helping each other out and we have been successful in limiting Dirk Nowitzki."

With the victory, Spain exacted a bit of revenge following Germany's 74-73 victory over Spain in 2005 in Serbia, where Nowitzki buried a baseline jumper over the out-stretched arm of Jorge Garbajosa to pull ahead with three seconds left before Calderon missed a three-pointer at the buzzer.

Spain also had beaten Germany twice in the preparations for this tournament - both times in Spain and both times by 16 points.

“This was a good game to watch as a coach. It was enjoyable to see how the players put on great performances," Spain coach Pepu Hernandez said.

“One strong point of our team is that we’re not predictable. We have various combinations that maybe the opponents don’t think we will use. And also we’re able to make defense fun for our players. They enjoy playing defense which is not always easy.”

"It was tough for us. Twenty-four hours ago we played our most crucial game of the tournament against Italy. So it's hard to play a day later in another big game, espeically against the hosts," said German coach Dirk Bauermann.

Hernandez's team will next face in Saturday's semi-finals the winner of Friday's last quarter-final - either defending champions Greece or Slovenia.

Nowitzki buried a three-pointer to open the scoring, but with 8:33 left in the first quarter and Germany ahead 3-2, technical difficulties postponed the game for nearly 15 minutes and the shot clock was unable to be used the rest of the first half.

When the game got back under way, Germany pulled ahead 9-8, but Garbajosa and Fernandez drained back-to-back three-pointers to push the hosts up 16-9.

Johannes Herber knocked down a trey of his own at the buzzer to bring Germany to within 18-14 after one period.

Bauermann's team refused to go away and Nowitzki nailed a three-pointer and Mithat Demirel evened the game at 20-20.

Navarro, however, answered with back-to-back three-pointers and Calderon scored nine of Spain's final 14 points in the half as they went on a 9-0 run to lead 40-27 at the break.

Spain already led 52-36 midway through the third period but used a 12-2 spurt to blow the game open for good with a 64-38 cushion.

Germany trailed 66-43 after three periods and saw Spain score the first 14 points of the fourth period - 80-43 - and never closed to within 28 points the rest of the way.

Germany take on the loser of that Greece-Slovenia match in the 5th-8th place classification games - with seventh place meaning a spot in the pre-Olympic qualifying tournament.

Spain

Felipe Reyes: “Our success tonight was due to the good defense we played. Our fastbreak was a result of that. We’re very happy to be in the semi-finals.”

On Dirk Nowitzki’s performance: Our defense has been very good and we’ve been able to help each other out a lot. Dirk suffered from our defense. He’s a great player but we were able to do a good job on him tonight.”

Jose Manuel Calderon: “We never look at the score so today all we wanted was to put pressure on Germany and take advantage of their mistakes. Our style is to play with the same intensity for 40 minutes.”

“We have played really well on defense, helping each other out and we have been successful in limiting Dirk Nowitzki.”

“We are where we wanted to be which is the semi-finals. We have the crowd behind us, we are playing as one and we have to take advantage of this. We will face the winners of Greece v Slovenia, and the best team in that quarter-final will go through and we will be ready to face them.”

“We only have to worry about ourselves not about our rivals, that has been our task from the beginning."

Coach Pepu Hernandez: “Well we’re very happy to be where we wanted to be. The team has done an extraordinary job. As Felipe said, it started with the defense. We had some difficulties in the first half, it’s unavoidable. But we waited and improved on defense and eventually were able to play some good fastbreak.”

“This was a good game to watch as a coach. It was enjoyable to see how the players put on great performances.”

“One strongpoint of our team is that we’re not predictable. We have various combinations that maybe the opponents don’t think we will use. And also we’re able to make defense fun for our players. They enjoy playing defense which is not always easy.”

“We’re prepared to compete against the best teams and the best teams are here. Greece and Slovenia are very good teams. We don’t underestimate them. We respect them a lot and we won’t take them lightly. We can’t say who we want to play because we don’t decide that.

Germany

Dirk Nowitzki: "We were close to them in the first part, but then they put pressure on us and we just fell apart. We didn't play as we should and don't deserve to play in the semi-finals. It seems like many teams in Europe made a progress but we are still stuck in the same place we were a few years ago. Now we have to fight for the German team, and that's enough motiviation for us."

“Spain are a great team and from what I’ve seen so far in this tournament, Spain and Lithuania are the favourites in this tournament.”

Patrick Femerling: “Spain showed why they are favourites to win the tournament. We competed well in the first quarter but then they showed how good they are and dominated. Now we have to look ahead to Saturday and hope to play much better.”

“Spain are a very good team. They have great depth and also they share the ball. They’ve got great players on the perimeter and in the post and that works well both on offense and defense. They’re as complete as a team can get.”

“I expected us to play much better especially after the way we played in the first quarter. I thought we’d be a whole lot better than that.”

Coach Dirk Bauermann: “Spain played an excellent game. Obviously it was tough for us. 24 hours ago we played our most crucial game of the tournament against Italy. So it’s hard to play a day later in another big game especially against the hosts. But congratulations to Spain. I wish them the best of luck. I look forward to Saturday and I’m sure we’ll bounce back.” 

Germany lived to fight another day by beating Italy to reach the quarter-finals of the EuroBasket, but now world champions Spain stand in their way.

The hosts, who lost to Croatia to finish second in Group B, have rebounded nicely with victories over Greece, Russia and Israel to win their qualifying round group.

Pau Gasol played just 18 minutes against the Israelis but scored 26 points, and Jose Calderon provided further evidence that he is on the verge of superstardom with 15 points off the bench on seven of 10 shooting from the floor.

Calderon is shooting 40% (eight of 20) from three-point range in this tournament.

		Nowitzki's late jumper helped Germany beat a Pau Gasol-less Spain in Belgrade two years ago

Germany beat a Pau Gasol-less Spain two years ago in Belgrade at EuroBasket 2005 with a late Dirk Nowitzki turn-around jump shot.

Spain coach Pepu Hernandez was not in charge of the team then, but even if he had been, he hinted that that game doesn’t have much significance.

"My team is motivated enough without having to think about avenging what happened in Belgrade," Hernandez said.

For Dirk Bauermann’s team to be successful, Nowitzki’s supporting cast will have to rise too the occasion as they did against Italy, when Johannes Herber and Jan-Hendrik Jagla excelled coming off the bench.

"I like Germany because how they have reacted against adversity,” Hernandez said. “Against Italy, they have played like a team not relying solely on one player. That makes Germany a very dangerous team."

Germany will have to play just one day after their last qualifying round game, while Spain go into the day on two days rest.

Last Result: Spain hammered Israel 99-73 to top their qualifying group while Germany beat Italy 67-58 to clinch the remaining spot in the last eight.

Key Match-up: Steffen Hamann v Jose Calderon. With the Spanish backcourt arguably the best in this EuroBasket, Hamann must help Germany control the tempo, and attack the basket as he did successfully against Italy when scoring 10 points on five of eight shooting.

Key Statistics: Germany out-rebounded Italy 52-31 in their final qualifying round game. It is a must for them to boss the boards against Spain.

X-Factor: Johannes Herber was a true hero against Italy, burying a trio of three-pointers at crucial times and finishing with 15 points. If he can duplicate that performance against Spain, the Germans will have a much better chance of success.

Speaking out: “Everything is possible. A game has to be played and then we will see how it ends.” – Dirk Nowitzki