Sweden missed the EC this summer. Already today, the journey towards the next European Championship began, when Sweden faced Great Britain away from home.
The match started weakly for the yellow-blues. But as the shooting found more accuracy, Sweden both caught up and passed to the halftime score 35-31.
– If you play such good defense, you should have a bigger lead than four points. Standing ovations! What they show defensively here in the first, we haven’t really seen before with these coaches, says SVT’s expert Nick Rajacic.
At the same time that Sweden continued to stand up well in the defensive game, it was heavier in the offensive.
– Sweden struggles to stop the simple open shots, the ball has to find the net.
Brain: We talk about it a lot
The match was even all the way in, but Sweden won 64–62 after a thrilling finish. Klara Lundquist’s two free throws with twelve seconds remaining proved to secure the victory.
Stressing the opposition properly is something Sweden worked hard on before the match.
– We talk a lot about applying hard pressure, and that starts with our guard at the front, says Lovisa Hjern.
On Sunday, Sweden plays its second match in The EC qualifier, against Denmark – starting at 13.55 in SVT1/Play.