Absolutely fucking incredibly frustrating, says Felix Claar to Viaplay.
To reach the European Championship semi-finals, Sweden must have help from Croatia or Iceland dropping points when the intermediate round ends on Wednesday. For Sweden, Switzerland awaits in Malmö Arena.
We have to rely on others and that sucks, says Claar.
Jim Gottfridsson:
Disappointment. We had everything in our own hands, we've wasted that quite a bit.
Michael Apelgren began his time as national team coach by leading Sweden to a huge flop and 14th place in the World Cup in Oslo last year.
In the European Championship on home soil, the national team would get revenge.
And it started well with four straight victories – including Sweden's victory over last year's World Cup runner-up Croatia.
In the last two games, most things have gone wrong.
Warning flags
It was time to raise the warning flags after the big loss against Iceland on Sunday, 27–35.
But it was still a loss that Sweden "could afford" because victories against already eliminated Hungary and Switzerland would still be enough.
Against Hungary, with the knife at their throat, the Swedish effort was equally pale in the first half.
Up front, Felix Claar and Hampus Wanne were pretty hot, but overall the attacking play was static and unimaginative. At the same time, the defense continued to leak and for the third game in a row, Sweden went into halftime trailing, 14–16.
Sweden was hanging on to the ropes in the European Championship that started so hopefully.
Too much carelessness. We are careless in attack and it is not good enough at the back either; we are conceding too many goals. We are not getting any real flow in it, Felix Claar said to Viaplay during the break.
It's tough, but we have to have a better second half.
A meager 7,342 spectators, Sweden's worst attendance figure so far in the European Championship, saw a turnaround after the break. Much of that was thanks to Claar continuing to produce going forward.
Help from others
When the Östergötland player tied the score at 28–28, it was his tenth goal of the match. When Albin Lagergren and Wanne added a goal each, Sweden led by two, with less than five minutes left to play.
But Hungary came back and it all ended with Andreas Palicka, the goalkeeper, getting the chance to shoot Sweden's winning goal into an empty net in the final seconds.
But Palicka's shot went wide, and the match ended in a draw.
