Sweden: Victory and defeat in final tests vs. Russia

Less than a week before their opening matches at the EHF EURO in Serbia, Sweden and Russia faced each other in two friendly matches in Sweden, with each team tasting victory.

After the host had won the first encounter clearly 27:19 (15:10), the "Russian bears" showed their claws and took a close 27:26 (14:13) victory in the last test of both teams.

"We played with high concentration, but still weren’t aggressive enough in defence," was the conclusion of Swedish coach Ola Lindgren after the first encounter.

As Dalibor Doder and Kim Ekdahl du Rietz had returned to their team after injury, the attack was working much better than at the tournament in Croatia the weekend before.

After 15 minutes the "Tre-Kronor" team led 9:4 and maintained the gap until the break. Thanks to the strong goalkeepers Mathias Anderson and Andreas Palicka they extended the lead to eight goals at the end. Top scorers with four goals each were Kim Andersson and Jonathan Stenbäcken (Sweden) and Pavel Atman for Russia.

Atman became the match winner for the Maximov team in the second encounter: with his last minute goal he secured the 27:26 win for the Russians. Even a strong performance by Swedish goalkeeper Palicka could not bring another victory for the host.

Russia took the lead very early and extended the margin to 8:5 and 11:7. Sweden regained their strength, equalizing at 18:18 and 26:26 (after three straight goals), but then Atman secured the guest’s victory.

Top scorers were Niklas Ekberg with eight goals for Sweden, and Chernoivanov and Koksharov with four goals each for the Russians.

Sweden have their first match at the EHF EURO on Sunday against FYR Macedonia in Group B, whilst the Russians start on Monday against Hungary.

Further information

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