Sweden had 40 seconds to chase the win after Portugal's equalizer, but it didn't help. Jim Gottfridsson shot the final shot in the last attack, but it came just after the full-time signal had gone.
I think we play right on the clock and you don't want to get the finish too early. We get a free throw and I see that there are five seconds left. Then I just try to get it on goal, says Gottfridsson.
Do you regret that you became too greedy and waited too long?
No. It's clear I can stand here and regret it. At the same time, if we had made the finish with 16 seconds left, you would have stood here with questions about why we didn't shoot later.
Many technical errors
Then the Swedish midfielder had a harder time digesting all the mistakes the team made throughout almost the entire match. Sweden made a total of 15 technical errors, compared to Portugal's 9.
That's what bothers me the most and what bites us in the butt again today. We've said with the handball we play, that certain technical errors we can accept. But this – just throwing the ball to the opponents? Then we might as well throw it over the sideline and run home again. They score 37 goals on us, that's too much.
In goal, Andreas Palicka and Fabian Norsten didn't have a fun evening at work either. The sparse crowd in the World Championship arena outside Oslo saw only five blue-yellow saves throughout the entire match.
An unusual sight.
Today was no good national team match, I'm super disappointed, of course, says team captain Palicka.
It was one of those days when not much worked. I tried to get going, never got into the match, and never got my legs going. "Overall" we have higher expectations of ourselves, of our entire defense and of ourselves in goal.
Brazil in the next match
The 38-year-old goalkeeper has many times taken on the role of blue-yellow hero, but saved only three of 24 Portuguese shots.
I can count to seven or eight shots that "okay, I usually take nine times out of ten". But today I didn't take those shots.
Sweden has Brazil (Friday) and Norway (Sunday) left to face. The two best teams from the group advance to the World Championship quarterfinals, and Blue-yellow still has advancement in their own hands, but no longer group victory (which means avoiding Denmark in the quarterfinals).
