Sweden's basketball team wants to make it to the World Cup for the first time and showed in Helsinki that those dreams are well justified.
On the other side stood Finland, the European Championship semi-finalists a year ago in a tournament that began with a narrow victory against Sweden in the opening game in Tampere.
Now Blågult got revenge in Veikkaus Arena - the best possible start to the decisive qualifying phase.
Not least NBA star Lauri Markkanen had a tough time and looked a bit lethargic during the summer. The Finnish giant can sometimes be almost unstoppable - he has scored 48 points in an international match - but only managed four points in the first half.
Denzel (Andersson), Viktor (Gaddefors) and Bobi (Klintman) made it tough for him all game in defence, they did a great job, says Larsson, who was even hotter going forward.
Management on break
After a slow start, where Larsson was benched after two early fouls, the Miami Heat star found his groove. Larsson scored nine straight points late in the first half and Sweden went into the locker room with a narrow lead, 44-41.
Sweden and Larsson started the second half worse and more sloppy, and it was ominous when Finland quickly turned a five-point deficit into a 56-49 lead.
But Sweden didn't give up. Simon Birgander was extremely strong under the basket and scored important points. Bobi Klintman contributed rebounds and assists. And Pelle Larsson continued to be the top scorer on the court when Sweden were again in the lead, 64-61 heading into the final period.
Tension at the end
It was a thrilling game in the end, just like in the European Championship opener last year. The phenomenal Birgander scored his 16th point to give Sweden an 82-78 lead with 42 seconds left - and then time ran out for Finland.
Finland was in the European Championship semi-finals a year ago, but we are winning here with this many people in the stands. It makes me incredibly proud and shows where we are as a basketball nation, says national team captain Mikko Riipinen.
A few Swedes cheered in the blue-and-white sea of home fans, in the previously Russian-owned arena that, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, stood locked and unused for more than three and a half years, before a change of ownership came about.
The public support is instead Sweden's on Sunday, when Olympic runners-up France await in a packed Avicii Arena in Stockholm.
The temperature before that clash hardly got any lower after the blue-yellow brawl in Helsinki.
"It was our goal to win at least one of the matches against Finland. This puts us in a great position going forward," says Pelle Larsson.
Six teams are playing in the group and have brought all the results from the first World Cup qualifying phase with them.
Going into Thursday's first round, France had five wins, Finland had four wins, while the other teams (Sweden, Estonia, Slovenia and Hungary) all had three wins. The top three teams will advance to the World Cup in Qatar in August-September next year.
The remaining World Cup qualifiers will be decided with six matches divided into three windows, of which this is the only one where the NBA pros are involved. After the match against France in Stockholm (Sunday), the qualifiers continue as follows:
November 27: Sweden–Hungary, November 30: France–Sweden.
February 25: Sweden–Finland, February 28: Hungary–Sweden.
"We need to win at least three, but probably four games to be able to reach the World Cup," said Sweden national team captain Mikko Riipinen before the qualifiers.
Now the first victory is secured.
