In his 99th international match, Jim Gottfridsson had lost the final of the World Championship against Denmark; in his anniversary match, the All-Star team centre back of the event steered Sweden to another victory in the EHF EURO 2022 qualifiers. On Tuesday night, the record EHF EURO champions had a harder nut to crack than expected against Montenegro, but finally won 27:24 despite an outstanding performance of Montenegrin goalkeeper Nebojsa Simic.

GROUP 8:

Sweden vs Montenegro 27:24 (15:13)

• Sweden have the optimum of six points from three matches and continue on 28 April with an away match at Romania.
• Montenegro remain on two points after three matches and have the second leg against Sweden at home on 30 April.
• After trailing 7:8, Sweden turned the match around by four straight goals to 11:8 and did not give the lead from their hands. Niclas Ekberg scored six goals from six attempts in the first half.
• In the second half, Sweden could not cast off the visitors; even a red card against Nemanja Grbovic did not break the Montenegrin resistance.
• Finally, Ekberg’s penalty goal for the 27:24 90 seconds before the end - his eighth strike - decided the match.
  
  

A kind of home match for Roganovic

Montenegrin head coach Zoran Rognovic knows Swedish handball best. The 43-year-old has lived for 15 years, with some short breaks playing for Qatari clubs, first as a player for several clubs (three stints for Lund, once for Malmö), then - since 2014 - as a coach. After two seasons back at Lund, he is the head coach of Eskilstuna Guif since 2019 - parallel to coaching Montenegro (since 2018).