History! Israel stunned France 82-69 at Eurobasket 2025 as the dynamic duo of Deni Avdija and Yam Madar ran circles and shot lights out against Les Bleus in the second half to send the blue-and-white fans into pandemonium savoring one of the greatest wins by the national team. The win, Israel’s first over France since 1997, moves their record to 2-1 in Group D as they will now ready for Belgium on Tuesday and Slovenia on Thursday with qualification for the knockout stages in Riga almost secured.

Zaccharie Risacher and Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Jaylen Hoard did as they pleased for France as they jumped out to a 20-10 lead but Deni Avdija and Khadeen Carrington scored for Israel to drop the deficit to 22-17 after the opening frame. Yam Madar began to find his rhythm to help the blue-and-white jump ahead as Mam Jaiteh pushed Les Bleus back into the lead, however, baskets by Yovel Zoosman, Roman Sorkin and Nimrod Levi knotted the score up at 36-36 by halftime.

Madar and Avdija both went from deep to begin the third quarter to give Israel the lead, Hoard and Risacher scored at the other end of the court, Eitan Burg put in good minutes but Eli Okobo drained a pair of triples to put France back in front 56-55 after thirty minutes of action. Avdija began the fourth quarter from deep and added a 3-point play, Tomer Ginat put in a couple of critical baskets while Avdija and Madar scored off fast breaks to polish off the historical victory.

Avdija scored 23 points, Madar added 17 points and Ginat put in 14 points in the win. Risacher scored 14 points, Okobo chipped in with 13 points and Hoard scored 12 points in the loss.

The MVP of the game Deni Avdija spoke about the win, “I went to bed at 5 am, I couldn’t fall asleep after the last shot (against Poland). We all came here tired, we gave our heart and soul because this is the Israeli team. This is our fighting spirit, this is our blood. What can I say about Yam Madar, he’s playing on half a knee and is doing everything he can. I love him.”

“We came with the belief that we knew how to fight and we knew it would be difficult. I’m proud of each and every one of the guys. We’ll move on. We have to stay humble, we have two more games to go and we have to stay grounded. As for the fans they have been unbelievable and we hope everyone who’s at home are enjoying as well.”

Yam Madar also spoke about the win, “I think we really did the best preparation we could have done. We came in and believed in ourselves. We knew it would be a very tough game against France but we kept fighting throughout the game I think the key was toughness. We did a good job and I’m glad we won.”