EHF EURO 2010 was a 'Christmas adventure' for Linnea Torstensson

"It was like being part of a Christmas adventure or being inside an advent calendar," recalls Linnea Torstensson when she looks back at the Women´s EHF EURO 2010 in Denmark and Norway, when she and her teammates from Sweden won the silver medal.

"We played our preliminary matches in Larvik and Lillehammer, and there was just a lot of snow everywhere.

"We just thought it was great with all that snow. If things had turned out bad for us in the arena, we would probably have found the snow terrible!” says the 31-year-old back court player who was awarded Most Valuable Player at the end of the tournament.

"Everything just turned out the right way for us in that competition.

"Everything worked perfectly, on and off the court. We succeeded with our defence and our attacking play almost all the way," she says when asked to explain Sweden’s rather surprising success at the championship.

Norway were too big a hurdle

It was, however, not enough for the Swedish women to go all the way.

In the final at Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning on Sunday, 19 December, they lost the final against Norway 25:20 in spite of leading 11:10 at half time.

"We simply ran out of power in the second half. We were up by one at half-time, but in the second half we did not have to physical resources to withstand the ’Norwegian handball machine’ which was running very well that day too.

"There is no doubt that we lost against the best team in the world at that time.

"Of course, we were disappointed. You are always disappointed when you lose, and you always play a final to win, but looking back, we can definitely be proud of our performance in the tournament," says Linnea Torstensson.

She was also impressed by the surroundings in Herning where 11,004 spectators set a new world record at a women’s handball game.

That record has been broken a few times since then, but that does not make the event less memorable for Torstensson who felt particularly at home in Herning, as she played for local club FC Midtjylland at that time.

"It was fantastic to play in front of such a big crowd who supported us a lot," says the tall left back who played for four years in Denmark plus a brief stint with Viborg HK last spring.

Now she represents the Romanian club CSM Bucuresti.

"Let us have another Christmas adventure"

Unlike several other players in this "Where are they now?"-series, Linnea Torstensson is still active on top level and in the Swedish national team which is currently preparing for the EHF EURO 2014 in Hungary and Croatia.

Sweden play in Group C in Varazdin where they will meet the Croatian hosts as well as Germany and the Netherlands.

"I do not know yet if we can take another medal like we did in 2010, but we are aiming high.

"However, we are in a tough group where we meet the hosts from Croatia in our opening match.

"That will be tough, and so will the matches against the Netherlands and Germany. Germany played a particularly good tournament last year at the World hampionship and will undoubtedly be a tough opponent.

"Still, I think we have a chance to win all our three preliminary matches, and that will probably also be necessary in order to be well positioned for the main round.

"It was tough to just watch the World Championship last year, for which we did not qualify, so we are determined to have our revenge this year at the EHF EURO.

"Let us have another Christmas adventure," says Linnea Torstensson.