Sweden was mocked before the Olympic premiere against Norway.
After the feat victory in the premiere, Sweden was not slow to respond.
– We are grateful, says Nathalie Hagman.
Sweden were not direct favorites before the Olympic premiere in handball on Thursday. Norway has been singled out as the big gold favorite by pretty much all experts, and Sweden had not won against the neighboring country in seven (!) years.
Taunted before the match
Before the match, much of the talk in Norway had been about Sweden’s sleeping habits. In the media, the Swedish national team went out and told how dissatisfied they were with the mattresses, and that they had to go to Ikea to buy new ones. It prompted Ikea Norge to come up with a child-prohibited taunt on its Instagram.
“There are rumors that the Swedish handball ladies are trying to win in Paris,” they wrote.
But after the match, it was Sweden who had to come up with the passes and the boots instead. Sweden made a brilliant effort from start to finish, and after, among other things, fantastic goalkeeping by Johanna Bundsen, Sweden was able to win 32-28. Sweden was at a disadvantage several times during the match but was responsible for a very strong turnaround, and towards the end the numbers ran away somewhat.
The answer after the win
Sweden could not have wished for a better start to this year’s Olympics, and afterwards Nathalie Hagman was not slow to respond to the Norwegian Ikea mockery.
– It has worked well. We sleep well and are grateful that Ikea exists, she tells Aftonbladet, and continues:
– No, but I think the Instagram post was very funny. It’s fun to be able to push that kind of thing.
Confederation captain Tomas Axnér was also asked questions about the whole thing, and then answered with a twinkle in his eye.
– I think Swedish Ikea can pay for those mattresses.
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