When the European Championship group play begins in Tampere on Wednesday, Finland and Sweden enter the hot neighborhood meeting with completely different conditions.
Finland is expected to win.
Sweden hopes for an upset.
And would like to bring out some Finnish premiere nerves in front of the large audience in the Nokia Arena.
If it's tied before the last period, it will probably be stressful in Finland and that's something we will try to use to a hundred percent. There are incredibly high expectations on Finland and a first match is still a first match, says Sweden's national team captain Mikko Riipinen.
Played European Championship 2013
Of the twelve players he has selected for the championship, only Ludvig Håkanson and Viktor Gaddefors know how tough it is to play in the European Championship.
They were involved last time, in Slovenian Koper 2013, and they also know that it's possible to cause an upset.
Håkanson, now 29-year-old team captain and key player on the guard position, was then a 17-year-old star talent from FC Barcelona. He was highly involved when Sweden took their only victory against Russia in the European Championship group play.
I got to start against Russia and that we then won… It's my strongest memory from that European Championship. But the whole tournament was extremely important for my career, I got a lot of confidence from playing in the national team so early at senior level, says the long-time Spain professional who this summer changed clubs from Murcia to Joventut.
”Ludde” enjoys finally getting to play in the European Championship again – and remembers his somewhat naive thoughts as a fresh teenager in the national team.
I think you got a little spoiled back then in 2013. It was my first summer with the national team and I thought that ”this is what you do in the summers, you play championships”.
Then it's been a damn long journey. I'm damn proud that we're back now, it feels completely incredible. It probably became really real for us now when we got here today, when you see everything around and how professional it is, says Håkanson after Monday evening's late training in Tampere.
”Would be a huge success”
After the meeting with Finland, matches against Germany, Great Britain, Lithuania, and Montenegro await in the lovely and centrally located European Championship arena, which was built for the ice hockey World Championship 2022.
We have set a goal to fight for advancing from the group (four out of six go to the round of 16). We will need to play incredibly well for it to happen. To win two matches, maybe three, would be a huge success, says Håkanson.
Carl Göransson/TT
Facts: Sweden's European Championship squad – now and then
TT
Twelve players have been selected for Sweden's squad for this year's basketball European Championship: Denzel Andersson, Simon Birgander, Tobias Borg, Wilhelm Falk, Viktor Gaddefors, Ludvig Håkanson, Pelle Larsson, Mattias Markusson, Barra Njie, Melwin Pantzar, Adam Ramstedt, Nicholas Spires.
Sweden meets Finland (Wednesday), Germany (Friday), Great Britain (Saturday), Montenegro (Monday), and Lithuania (next Wednesday) in the group play in Tampere. The four best teams advance to the round of 16.
The squad in Sweden's last European Championship, 2013: Anton Gaddefors, Viktor Gaddefors, Kenny Grant, Ludvig Håkanson, Jonas Jerebko, Joakim Kjellbom, Brice Massamba, Thomas Massamba, Dino Pita, Erik Rush, Jonathan Skjöldebrand, Jeffery Taylor.
Sweden also met Finland back then and lost big, 60–81. There were also losses against Greece, Turkey, and Italy. The only win came against Russia.
