Facts: Sweden’s WC
This is how the intermediate round ended in Gothenburg: Sweden 10 points, Hungary 6, Iceland 6, Portugal 5, Brazil 3, Cape Verde 0.
Sweden’s matches:
First group game:
Sweden-Brazil 26–18
Sweden-Cape Verde 34–27
Sweden-Uruguay 47–12
Intermediate round:
Sweden-Hungary 37–28
Sweden-Iceland 35–30
Sweden-Portugal 32–30
Quarter Finals:
In Stockholm, on Wednesday evening.
With Friday’s defeat against Iceland fresh in mind, it was clear early on that the match against Portugal meant nothing more than honor for Sweden.
It was felt both on the pitch and in the stands, even though it was almost full in Scandinavium again. One of the spectators now was the goalkeeper hero Andreas Palicka, who got a much-needed rest, and he got to see a hectic opening of the match where it took almost five minutes before Eric Johansson scored the first goal of the match.
Just 22-year-old Johansson and his heavy shot were the big exclamation point in the first half, where he scored four goals in as many attempts.
Wanne burned everything
The sharpness was far from as good in other directions and edges. Not least the blue-yellow left wing, where Hampus Wanne was out of sorts and burned three out of three shots – including a penalty – in a half that left Sweden 13-14 behind.
— As a team, we must improve our defensive game. They are allowed to slip through all too easily and going forward we have to go more towards goals in the gaps that exist, Eric Johansson told Viaplay at halftime.
He was more satisfied after the match.
— We felt a little half-hearted in the first. We said we were going to get into the shit and show joy. We kept our composure in the attacking game. It was nice to turn it around in the second half.
For Sweden, the World Cup quarter-final awaits in the Tele2 arena in Stockholm on Wednesday, and the most important thing now was not to incur any unnecessary injuries and blemishes before that match.
Important for Portugal
At the same time, the match meant everything for Portugal – and Hungary. The Portuguese needed to take at least one point to overtake the Hungarians in the second quarter-final place from the intermediate round in Gothenburg.
The Hungarian players must have cheered when they got to see a significantly sharper Sweden after the break. Tobias Thulin replaced Mikael Appelgren between the posts and had more fluidity in the goal. And when Daniel Pettersson, red-hot eight-goal scorer on the right wing, made it 25-19, most probably believed that Sweden had made the winning move.
But Portugal crept closer, to 27–26, before Pettersson with one of all his goals gave Sweden some breathing room again.
Excellent Eric Johansson had to shoot the last blue-yellow goal in the victory, which stayed at 32–30.
Sweden has won all six matches on the way to the quarter-finals. On Monday evening, it will be decided whether the opponent will then be Denmark or Egypt.
Oscar Bergendahl does not attach importance to which team Sweden will face next.
“We would like to win, and if we want to win the World Cup, we must win all matches against all teams,” he tells Viaplay.