Sweden’s men’s national team, with its 14 European Championship golds as a team, is the best in table tennis history, but the last gold came in 2002.
Is it time now at home? The championship in the Malmö arena has at least started according to plan. After finishing 3-0 against Italy in Sunday’s premiere, it was 3-1 against the Czech Republic.
Two victories out of two possible means that the blue and yellow men win their group and have to face a group runner-up in Thursday’s round of 16.
Falck fell in the first match
In terms of the game, however, Sweden had to fight against the Czech Republic, which is better than Italy, but in terms of the individual world ranking, the Czechs are clearly worse than the Swedish players.
Mattias Falck (ranked 20th in the world) started for Sweden, but fell heavily 2–3 in the set against Lubomir Jancarik (90). The Swede lost the tiebreaker with a clear 5–11.
Even though Sverigeettan Truls Möregårdh (13) lost a set, he had no major problems with equalizing to 1–1 via 3–1 in the set against Pavel Sirucek (410).
Against Italy, Anton Källberg played the third singles, but against the Czech Republic, national team captain Jörgen Persson chose to bet on Kristian Karlsson (38) as the third man.
Karlsson fixed the winning position
After taking home the first set against Tomas Polansky (151), Karlsson dropped two straight sets. Via 11–8 in the fourth, however, he forced a tiebreaker and there the 33-year-old picked out his big game. Via 11–3 in the fifth set, Karlsson won the match and gave Sweden the lead with 2–1.
The Swedish anchor Truls Möregårdh managed that situation in the best way. The 21-year-old Scania lost the first set against Lubomir Jancarik (8–11), but Möregårdh was in his best ping pong mood after that. The Swede won three straight sets (11–7, 11–4, 11–5) and led Sweden to the group victory.
The group stage in the EC ends on Tuesday and immediately afterwards the round of 16 finals are drawn. Sweden’s ladies have also won their group and will also be drawn against a group runner-up.