"It was another level up in performance today," Palicka told Viaplay.
He highlighted the harmony in the Swedish team as the key.
"We have worked a lot together to find this harmony. We're only a little sloppy for a few minutes; in the second half we are extremely good at the back. We get hits, we win this physical match, we run and get our counter-attacking game going," Palicka said.
The intermediate round in Malmö begins on Friday against Slovenia, who also have two points. Sweden's other opponents are Iceland (two points), Hungary and Switzerland (both with zero points).
Ahead of the match, the focus was on the tough defensive play of World Cup finalist Croatia. Sweden captain Michael Apelgren expected an offensive 5-1 defense in which an opponent would step up to try to neutralize Sweden's playmaker Felix Claar.
Found the keys
That was also the case at times, and although Claar opened the scoring with his 15th goal of the tournament, the 29-year-old did not have to shoulder the heavy scoring load in the first half.
Sweden found keys to unlock the opposing defense anyway.
With sharp counterattacks and quick rebounds after back-to-back goals, Blågult was able to break down Croatia to some extent. Croatia changed many players when their defense was lacking.
Left-back Eric Johansson showed fine shooting, breakthrough play and several good passes as Sweden went into halftime with a 17–13 lead.
Just as he did against the Netherlands and Georgia, Mikael Appelgren, 36, started in goal. He got off to a good start against Croatia - who only scored their first goal after six minutes - but made five saves in the first half (28 percent save rate).
For the second half, team captain Andreas Palicka took his place between the posts - and the 39-year-old was outstanding again.
Two goals by Palicka
Albin Lagergren managed to make it 18–13 before Palicka made his first save and scored from his own goal to make it 19–13 when Croatia pulled their goalkeeper during a penalty.
Croatia only scored one goal in the first ten minutes of the half and the second came into an empty net when Sweden substituted Palicka for an extra outfield player.
With a strong defense and a great performance from Palicka, Blågult were ultimately too strong and secured the two points for the intermediate round. The veteran goalkeeper managed to score another goal as Sweden won 33–25.
Now he is looking forward to the continuation of the intermediate round:
"We have three out of three wins and have found harmony. We won by eight goals against the World Cup runner-up, so it's hard to complain," Palicka said.
